Icarus
by RosesofEnvy
Summary: The winged boy he met wasn't real right? The honey coloured wings were figments of his imagination right? But the jacket he possesses even in consciousness means he really exists...right? (art drawn by me)
1. Digging Your Own Grave

Karkat clenches his fists, fingernails digging sharply into his palms as more screams assaults his ears.

"YOU'VE ALREADY GOTTEN IN TROUBLE BEFORE SCHOOL HAS EVEN STARTED-" His mother screams, waving her arms around wildly at her son who's keeping his gaze on the ground.

"IF YOUR FATHER COULD SEE HOW LOUSILY YOU'RE DOING IN LIFE-"

He grits his teeth, biting his tongue in the process, but he ignores the coppery taste beginning to coat the inside of his mouth. His anger flares at the mention of his absent father and before he can stop himself he begins screaming right back at his mom.

"DON'T FUCKING START WITH THAT AGAIN I REALIZE HOW MUCH I FUCK UP OK YOU DON'T HAVE TO REMIND ME EVERY FUCKING TIME I MESS UP OKAY!" He screams back at the top of his lungs, red tinging his cheeks as anger floods through him.

"FUCK YOU," Is his final remark as he shoves past his mom and runs towards the door.

"KARKAT VANTAS DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE THIS HOUSE!" She screeches, grabbing at Karkat's arm and snagging it for a second before he jerks away.

Karkat slams the door as hard as he can behind him, not noticing the slight chill in the air from the impending Autumn storms as his bare feet slap against the sidewalk. He doesn't even know or care where he's going, he just runs until the last of his anger drains away. His adrenaline fades away with it, leaving him exhausted.

In front of him is a playground, and with sluggish movements he walks over the the slide that's already been thinly coated with dew and crawls under it, folding his knees up to his chest in order to fit in the slightly small space. He leans back against the metal of the playing structure and sighs, already beginning to regret the choice of running nearly halfway across town.

His breath wisps in front of his face before being whisked away in the wind, and he suppresses a shiver and wraps his arms more tightly around himself. His feet are badly scraped, he can already tell that much through the numbed pain, and he didn't grab his phone or a jacket. And he managed to lose track of where he was going after awhile.

"Stupid fucking decision," Karkat mutters harshly to himself, hitting his head against the top of his knees a few times before sighing again and closing his eyes.

He registered for school today and the ladies were glaring at him the entire time like he had just murdered someone, although he had no clue why. Maybe because of the scowl on his face but that had given them no right to be irrevocably rude, so he had been rude right back.

Stupid school, stupid people, stupid reason to get angry but he still did.

Stupid stupid stupid.

It's like a never ending mantra that runs through his head, mixing in more unsavory words as his anger increases.

Karkat's mind suddenly registers the sound of footsteps, and he immediately tenses, becoming wary and paranoid as the sound gets closer.

Adrenaline floods through his veins once more, and he begins thinking quickly on who else would be walking around at almost midnight (probably later because he has no clue how long he's been sitting here) and if he could possibly run away without having to fight whoever it is.

The footsteps are light, possibly someone young, but the solid sound of shoes against earth is absent so he suspects this person is also barefoot.

Karkat moves tilts his head in an attempt to see around the plastic slide obscuring his vision, and he can in fact see that someone is walking towards him. Whoever it is, which he guesses that it's someone near his age, is barefoot, and their jeans end around mid calf, and the hems are sort of frayed a if they wore those jeans often. A softer sound reaches his ears, almost that of cloth being rustled together with paper.

The teenager, which Karkat guesses is a guy, stops a few feet away from the slide and seems hesitant to advance any further. Karkat slowly stretches out his legs, then moves into a crouching position. He can hear his heart thumping in his ears, borderline panic rushing through him even though he suspects that this guy won't hurt him.

Karkat intently watches the newcomers feet as he begins approaching once body tenses as the guy is now only a few feet away; he could reach out and touch him if he wanted to.

As the guy begins to crouch down, Karkat makes his move, shooting from his hiding spot and practically pouncing on the guy, tackling him to the ground in one smooth motion. A yelp rings through the air as Karkat now sits with his knee on the guys chest, one hand clenched in the strangers shirt as the other is drawn back in a threatening fist.

Surprise and curiosity spreads across Karkat's face though as he sees that as he suspected, it was a teenager his age, also a guy, but he's just laying against the ground with an almost pained look on his face, eyes clenched tightly shut.

Karkat quickly climbs off him, but doesn't help the stranger up as he backs away a few steps, entranced by the guys appearance. A single honey-shaded feather floats past Karkat's face and he suddenly realizes what he's so shocked about.

As the teen on the ground leans up and rubs at his head with a pained grimace on his face, two gilded golden wings unfold from underneath his body and arc out to lay in a less painful-looking way.

Karkat's eyes widen as the teen stands with a still rather painful look on his face, but it quickly morphs into almost fear as he sees Karkat still standing in front of him.

"S-sorry, I didn't mean to...scare you," the stranger says quickly, holding his hands out and talking a few steps away, almost cowering. His wings suddenly snap close to his body and Karkat's focus clicks back into place.

"I attacked you first, sorry, but also to be fair, you did scare me," Karkat replies curtly, taking a few steps forward, his gaze still focused on the wings.

_I'm dreaming, he must be right? I fell asleep underneath the slide and now I'm imagining some teenager with wings that I almost punched into oblivion._

"I-I saw you run into the playground and I guess I was just sort of curious and worried because no one ever comes here at this time of night and you looked really like angry and stuff and...yeah," He trails off, looking almost embarrassed as he shuffles a bit further away from Karkat.

"Oh," Karkat frowns, but doesn't really pay attention to what the guy is saying to him. With a few quick strides he's standing in front of the guy again and before he can move back, Karkat has a tight hold on his arm and is reaching to touch one of the feathery appendages.

Before he can however, the stranger, which Karkat notices is wearing a faded yellow shirt, twists around and jerks his arm from Karkat; seeming almost terrified at the action.

"What the hell!" Yellow shirt asks in a high pitched tone of voice.

"Ok, obviously a dream, there's no way those wings are real," Karkat murmurs to himself in concentration, staring still at the strangers back.

"A dream? Are you seriously ok? I mean they told me I shouldn't be seen by anyone because they would take me away and stuff but I don't think they told me about saying I'm not real," The guy seems seriously confused and concerned as Karkat continues to mutter under his breath.

"Yeah definitely a dream, although it's awful cold for a dream, but I'm sure it's just my subconscious signalling some shit to me," Karkat says thoughtfully as another gust of wind ruffles his clothes and hair.

"Wow yeah you must be freezing, here, take my jacket," The stranger says with a frown as he observes Karkat shivering. He slides the clothing item easily from his back and hands it to Karkat. The small teen stares dubiously at it before shrugging and putting it on, what's he got against a dream guy giving him his jacket?

"This has been an interesting dream stranger that I'm sorry for almost punching but I should probably head home now," Karkat says almost warily, shrugging into the jacket and holding back a sigh of relief as warmth seems to immediately envelop him.

"I'm still not sure what you mean, but I really need to go back, they're going to be angry at me." Yellow shirt begins backing away, watching Karkat carefully as the smaller teen begins to turn away before turning back.

"Ok dream-dude, thanks alot, I probably will never see you again," Karkat calls back with a small wave before beginning to walk home. He forces himself not to look back as he retraces his steps back to his house. He repeatedly attempts wake himself from the dream, but each attempt just leaves him with slow forming bruises and scratches.

Upon reaching his house, he decides not to enter through the front door, instead walking around back to where his bedroom window would be. He always keeps it unlocked for situations like this.

The digital clock reads almost three am, which he frowns at because that's definitely a lot later than when he first left the house, but he attempts to ignore it as he moves as silently as possible to sit on his bed, kicking off his shoes.

The absence of noise confirms that his mother is no longer awake, or no longer here, but he doesn't risk tempting fate and instead just lays down in bed, curling into an almost fetal position and rubbing the sleeve of the jacket between his fingertips.

Pretty weird dream.

* * *

**AN:**

**Hello yes I'm back quite soon. **

**This story is not quite a crossover of Maximum Ride and Homestuck, which is why I didn't label it as such, but my inspiration was the books series Maximum Ride by James Patterson. Also the song Icarus by Bastille (and you know, the Greek Tragedy about how Icarus flew too close to the sun and water and consequently died.)**

**Only the first chapter (and I'm writing in third person, which is weird because for so long in DYDFTS I've been writing in first) but I hope you lovelies enjoyed it **

**-Levy**


	2. Starting to Fly Too Close to The Sun

"Karkat wake up!" Karkat's mom shouts, slamming her fist against the wall. The teen jumps slightly as he's jolted from sleep, glancing over to see his mom standing in the doorway of his room.

"You've got ten minutes to get ready, then we're going to the orientation," She snaps, giving Karkat a pointed glare before slamming the door closed.

Karkat flips off the door as he slides out from underneath the blanket, tugging down the sleeves of the jacket and yawning.

...

Jacket?

Karkats eyes widen as he looks down at his arms, seeing the jacket he'd worn in his dream.

He doesn't own a jacket like this though.

He shakes his head and pinches his arm, closing his eyes tightly, and opening them to see the exact same scene before him.

"There's no way," He mutters to himself, rubbing the material between his fingers thoughtfully. He snaps back into focus as he hears his mom yelling again from the kitchen.

"Seven minutes Karkat!"

"Fuckin dicks," He curses, sliding the jacket off and running around his room to get into socially acceptable clothes before, after a bit of debate, sliding the jacket over his t-shirt.

"You better be ready," His mom warns as she opens the door, a scowl already settled on her normally soft features. The scowl slides away as she sees that he is, and she almost smiles as she adjusts the strap of her purse on her shoulder.

"Good, make sure you have your phone and keys alright? You're going to have to walk home or catch a ride with a friend because I've got work late tonight," She informs as she digs car keys from the depths of her purse and begins walking out.

"Again?" Is all Karkat asks, slipping his phone into his pocket (his key is kept on a chain underneath his shirt) as she had advised.

His mom sighs, "Afraid so, tomorrow I'll be working five a.m. to three so you'll have to get on the bus yourself and get home. I expect you to do all of this alright? As a freshman you need to learn to be more responsible."

Karkat holds back a groan as he hears the commanding tone enter her voice, almost every time she started talking like that the two of them would get into a fight. Instead he begins to block out her voice as they both climb into the car.

"Karkat Vantas!"

"What mom!" He snaps, glaring before wincing and leaning back.

She sighs eyebrows pinching together, "I was asking if you got that jacket from one of your friends, I've never seen it before."

Karkat tries to think of a believable excuse, but decides to just go with what his mom thinks, "Yeah I went over to Gamzee's last night, he didn't want me to walk around in the cold."

His mom nods, "It's going to get cold tonight as well, so please get a ride home if you can, and also start wearing your heavier coats to school."

Karkat makes a noise that could be interpreted as one of agreement and turns to look out the window, seeing them pull up to the already mostly full parking lot of Carapacian High.

He can already see Gamzee's old somewhat battered van haphazardly parked near the back of the parking lot. Although Karkat had already decided to avoid the Juggalo if possible because he didn't want his alibi to fall through.

His mom turns off the engine and looks over at him sternly, "Karkat, you better not start any trouble, no matter what you have to keep your anger under control, you've already got one strike against you and I don't want to move you to a new highschool, just please," She takes a deep breath, "Don't get into trouble."

He almost feels bad about yesterday, but doesn't show it as he nods, opening the car door and stepping out.

The sight of the hellhole he'll have to spend his next few years in makes his throat close up, dread settling in his stomach at the prospect of now giving up his lazy summers to six hours a day in this place.

His mom doesn't seem to notice his distress as she signs in at the door. (Which he thinks is stupid because what does it matter that they know every student that enters and leaves? They forget them all anyway).

"I'm Keramin Vantas signing in Karkat for freshman orientation," His mom smiles at the office lady as she puts a mark next to his name and gestures for her to continue walking.

Keramin makes sure to walk Karkat to the auditorium, getting all the necessary papers before turning to him, "Make sure you get home alright? Remember to grab your schedule, and I'll have your hide if you get into trouble," She pats his shoulder, beginning to walk away.

Karkat exhales as he watches her leave, pulling the jacket down over his hands and taking one of the first seats in the back. He doesn't need to avoid Gamzee now, but he can already see that the teen is sitting nearer to the front with his arm around Tavros's shoulder. He doesn't want to interrupt them or anything. He tries to ignore the bitter thoughts and the stinging on his arms as he rubs the jacket sleeve.

For some reason he couldn't stop doing that either, rubbing the sleeve of the jacket between his fingers. He doesn't know if it's because he doesn't think it's real or if it's because it's really comfortable. It smells faintly of honey as well, with a hint of antiseptic. The antiseptic part is weird, barely there yes, but still noticeable, but the honey is nice, comforting.

The voice of the principal distracts him from his thoughts and he looks up to see a stern lady wearing a business suit holding a microphone on stage.

"Hello students of the 2014-2015 school year, as you all know, or rather should know, my name is Rose Lalonde, and I will be looking after all of you for the year. For right now you will all be taken to your homerooms where you will there receive your schedules, locker combinations, and other necessities for the year. I wish everyone a happy school year, you're all dismissed."

Karkat is one of the first out of the auditorium, already knowing that he's headed to his language teacher's classroom for homeroom. Mrs. Doloria, the Latin teacher, smiles as he walks in, already holding his schedule out to him.

"Nice to see you Karkat, your locker is 610, down the east hall, the combination is on your schedule, come check with me if it doesn't work," She greets him with her lilting voice. Karkat somewhat smiles at her and nods, managing to leave the classroom just as other students begin to enter it.

He's glad that his locker is in a more secluded location, and as he glances at his schedule he can see that two of his classes, Art and Language, are in this hallway. That means he'll actually be able to use his locker, shocking.

He ignores the voices echoing around him as he clicks the lock and opens it, locking and opening it a few more times to make sure it works before hurrying to begin walking to where his next class would be. Latin II is his first period, on the first floor, then he has to go to History on floor 2, along with Geometry and Computer Applications for third and fourth period. He already knows that lunch will be between fourth and fifth period. Then for sixth period he has honors English II on the third floor before his final, 7th period, Art (drawing and sculpture studies) on the first floor.

He stops halfway to the second floor, making a weird, concentrating face as he goes back to the first floor, moving to one of the side hallways so as not to be found by Gamzee, and sits there for a few seconds before getting out his phone.

Shockingly, he actually has a few messages.

_From: Mom  
To: Karkat_

_Get your schedule and a ride, storms are headed this way and I don't want you out walking in it_

He bites the corner of his mouth in contemplation as he answers.

_From: Karkat  
To: Mom_

_Alright, got it_

When he doesn't receive a reply, he knows it's because she's already at work, but it still makes the bitter feeling in his throat grow stronger, especially when he see's that the next text is from Terezi.

_From: Terezi  
To: Karkat_

_Hey Karkles :] havin fun at your new school? Don't forget to tell me every detail!_

He chews the inside of his cheek this time, trying to push the more sad thoughts out of his mind. Terezi had been one of his only friends at his old school, and he will admit that he'd grown a small crush on her. Of course that crush crushed his heart when she began dating Dave.

Of course, it's because of Dave that he'd been expelled and moved to this shitty town. (Well not totally Dave, John and Jade helped) It wasn't all bad, Gamzee decided to move with him. Although the Juggalo now hangs out more with Tavros than anything.

"This fucking sucks," He mutters to himself, pushing off the wall and beginning to walk towards the entrance of the school, and running smack into someone.

"Karbro! I've been looking for you!" Gamzee crows happily, leaning down to hug the shorter teen.

"Yeah yeah hi Gamzee," Karkat grumbles, but can't keep a small smile off of his face.

"Have you been avoiding us bro? I saw you were all up and bookin' it outta the auditorium," Gamzee says as he releases Karkat from his rib-crushing hug.

"Nah, I was just in a hurry, my mom is waiting for me in the parking lot because she has to get to work," Karkat says, the lie feeling false on his tongue.

"Aw that's no fun Karbro! We'll just have to meet up tomorrow then," Gamzee frowns, almost dejectedly shuffles back to Tavros. Karkat shakes his head and lightly punches Gamzee's shoulder as he walks past.

"Don't worry Gamz, I'll see you tomorrow alright, you too Tav," Karkat tosses over his shoulder as he walks out, hoping that Gamzee won't follow as he pushes through the front doors. Thankfully he doesn't though.

Thunderheads are gathering on the horizon and Karkat can already see the faint flashes of lightning, although there isn't any thunder yet. A strong cold wind almost pushes Karkat over, and the teen growls under his breath as he leans against the wall, wincing as the action applies pressure on the self caused scratches on his arms.

"Fuckin shit," He curses under his breath, drawing the hood of the jacket over his head and beginning to speedwalk away from the school. When he's a few blocks away from his house, he feels the first raindrop land on his nose. Looking up, he sees that the ominous clouds are directly overhead and have apparently decided to unleash the moisture they've retained.

Cold drops begin to darken the already dark grey of the jacket and soak through the fabric in general in very few seconds. By the time he manages to get inside of the house, his jet black hair is dripping onto the polished wooden floors.

Karkat takes of the jacket and his shirt, kicking off his shoes and socks as well before walking quickly to the laundry room, grabbing dry clothes and a few towels before walking back to his sopping wet clothes. He tosses his wet clothes into the washer before heading up to take a shower.

Thankfully the power isn't knocked out until after the washer and dryer has finished their cycles and after his shower is done. The loud beep still startles him as the lights flash out, leaving lightning as the only illumination.

It's nearly eleven, but he still gets up to dig out a few flashlights, leaving one on the bench by the front door for whenever Keramin gets home.

When Karkat goes up to his room, he merely lays on his back and points the flashlight beam at the ceiling, making patterns for awhile until he feels his thoughts wandering.

The guy in the yellow shirt is mainly what he thinks about, and about the jacket. Because it's impossible for someone to have wings right? That's only something that belongs in fairy tales and in imaginations.

Karkat knows what he saw though, and if the yellow shirted guy isn't real...

Then why does he still have the jacket?

* * *

**AN: Sorry for the late update, the last day of school was yesterday so I've basically been stressed out of my mind. **

**But I hope this update isn't too terrible! I also drew a picture of Sollux (which is the cover photo) (Sorry for the poor quality). My own thoughts started to be transcribed through Karkat's so I'm sorry about that **

**Hope you guys like this chapter though, I worked hard to get it posted **

**Until the next update **


	3. Wild Winds Surround You

Karkat forgets to set his alarm for the next morning, which he quickly realizes when he wakes up and see's that it's nearly seven. The school bus gets to the stop at five after seven.

"Dammit I'm an idiot," he groans as he sits up,rubbing a hand down his face in attempt to wake up. A headache immediately assaults his head, and presses a hand against his temple to try and appease it. When he manages to push away the pain, he rolls out of the bed and stands, lightheadedness making him pause unsteadily.

"What the hell," He mumbles once he's able to blink away the lights that'd somehow managed to blind his vision.

"Just a headache," he remarks, shaking his head slightly and beginning to strip out of the clothes he'd worn to bed. With a glance over at the clock he realizes he'll have to definitely walk to school.

After putting on fresh clothes, he stares at the jacket for a few seconds before slipping it over the shirt he'd grabbed. He doesn't even really know why he's wearing it, just because.

Karkat remembers to be quiet as he exits his room, clutching his shoes in one hand and slinging his bag over the other. He knew that his mom had gotten home later than she said she would, probably because she was working on an important case. Always an important case.

There's still a plate of half eaten food left out on the table, with some more important looking papers laid out next to it. Keramin's suit jacket and high heels are sitting in the chair beside the one that at one point in the night had occupied his mother.

Karkat sighs as he cleans the dishes away, putting the food in the fridge in case Keramin would end up eating it later. He just left the articles of clothing, no point of waking her up in the process of putting them away. He takes an ibuprofen as well, the headache cold be bothersome if it persisted for the entire day. And just because he knew it wasn't good to take medicine on an empty stomach, he grabs a granola bar and takes a bite out of it before tossing it on the counter. He doesn't really feel hungry.

It's already 7:15 and he knows that it'll take him at least ten to twenty minutes walking. At the front door he slides on his ratty chucks, lacing them loosely and checking to make sure his house key is nestled against his chest before he heads out. The sky is still overcast from the spur of the moment storm last night, and if anything it's threatening with more rain.

"Maybe I should ask Gamzee to drive me from now on, I'll probably wake up late every morning," Karkat thinks aloud, realizing the fact as he watches a few cars pass. Plus he knew the now Junior would be fine with "helpin a bro out". Especially since Gamzee had gotten his license just before graduating as a sophomore.

"I'll be sure to do that today, but then again I don't even have any classes with him, since he's two grades ahead of me," Karkat continues, musing to himself. He pulls the sleeve of the jacket over his hands, trying to ignore the bandaids wrapped around his forearm. Not exactly subtle.

A slow mist begins to fall once he gets close to the school, which he notices escalates to a slow drizzle when he glances out the window after entering the building. He got here later than most of the buses, so there's already so many other people there that he has to fight through them. The noise certainly doesn't assist his growing headache.

_God why won't these idiots move, _He thinks with a scowl, thoughts directed at the slow moving gaggle of girls that are keeping him only a few feet away from his locker. When he's finally able to break away from them, he tosses his bag in without much care where it ends up. All he bothers to grab is a notebook fir notes and a pen.

The Latin II classroom already contains a few people with already claimed desks. All of them so far seem to be upperclassmen, unsurprising but sort of disappointing. Karkat doesn't really know anyone at this school anyway, since he'd transferred just as the year ended. He already was in contact with most of the teachers but that was otherwise it.

He avoids eye contact as he takes a seat near the back of the room and by the window, where he can see that the steady drizzle had already turned into a downpour. Seems like it'll be a more rainy fall. He leans his head on his palm and taps the pen against the desk absentmindedly as the first bell rings, signalling that everyone needed to head to class.

The few people in the room claimed their desks quickly, most of them sticking together in groups nearer to the front, also greeting other friends that steadily wandered in. Even though Karkat didn't know anyone, he still observed the people that weren't looking his way. Even though it seemed to be a smaller class, there was a few people that sat near to him.

He caught a few conversations, ones that drew his attention because they indirectly reference him.

_"What's a freshie doing here, isn't that the kid that transferred or something?"_

_"Don't be so loud, that's rude."_

_"To answer you question I think he is._"

Karkat tries to tune them out when he realizes that their conversation isn't going to go anywhere, instead scanning the room to see who all is in the class. Only about twenty students, not alot but then again not a bad amount for Latin. At his old middle school there were only ten people taking Latin. Most took Spanish (unsurprisingly), but there were a few, like Gamzee who took French, and he knew that a few more took German.

Mrs. Doloria breezes into the room, letting the heavy metal door slam shut behind her as she takes her place in the front, a small smile on her face. "Good morning my Latin students, I presume we all had a good Summer-"

"Mine sucked monkey balls!" A student calls out, giggles spreading through the room at the statement. Karkat sets eyes on the guy and see's a redhead with a mischievous smile spread across his lips.

Mrs. Doloria shakes her head, the smile growing larger, "Thank you so much for the much needed information 'Sprite, I'm sure you didn't study over the 'monkey balls' Summer as well?"

'Sprite' looks sheepish, but doesn't answer.

"Alright, don't answer, let's start today off running shall we? Your textbooks have been placed on your desks already and I will hand out your workbooks from last year while calling attendance, come up to my desk to get them." Mrs. Doloria moves behind her desk and begins calling from a list of names, handing each a workbook (That all seem well worn).

"Karkat Vantas," She calls last, unsurprising for the student in question. When he walks up to the desk she gives him an unmarked workbook. "You weren't in my class for Latin I, but I assume you did something similar enough to this?"

Karkat flips through the book, seeing all similar activities he'd completed before, he nods to tell her so.

"Good, we've only worked through to section 5-A, if you wish to complete it for extra practice you may but I will not require you to," She smiles at him softly, and Karkat can't help but smile back.

"Aw no fair! We had to do all that work and he just gets a free pass," A girl whines. Karkat gives her a quick glance and see's that it's a kinder looking girl slouched over her desk with a small pouting frown.

"Now Nepeta, it's fair if he's already done the work, just at a different school," Mrs. Doloria says to the girl, laughing at the deeper pout she emits.

"Lucky freshie," Someone mutters as he walks by. Of course, Karkat can't pinpoint who it is because they said it so quietly. Oh boy he can't wait to encounter this person more face to face soon.

Seems like he can't escape people like this.

He ends up doodling in his notebook since Mrs. Doloria is only going over a review, which he doesn't need. He does write down their assignment that'll be due by Monday, and the fact that he'll need to work through the beginning part of the workbook so that he isn't completely behind.

History was next, which is overall pretty boring as well, although because of his first period, this class is also filled with upperclassmen. These don't seem to mind him as much though, more of the studious group than the 'what the hell are they doing here' group.

Geometry he finds, is already his least favourite class. Mostly because he was forcefully put into a group with people and the teacher is a crabby dickhead that began lecturing them three seconds into class.

It's only by fourth period that he's re-asserted among his fellow freshmen, which he quickly realizes is even worse because none of them know him at all and they all seem to have different theories on why he was transferred.

_"He killed a classmate_." Not even close.

"_He was involved in a gang and when the gang broke up he had nowhere to go."_ Not exactly remotely near the truth.

_"A girl broke up with him and he was so devastated he moved._" Closer than the gang theory that's for sure.

"The school kicked him out because of a prank._"_

At that statement Karkat pinpoints the voice, a girl with glasses and a blue spider-latticed tank top. She's grinning confidently and leaning back in her chair, not even bothering with their assignment of creating an office spreadsheet. For a second she stares right at Karkat before continuing to talk to the kid next to her.

_Well one person knows, wonder how they figured it out_, Karkat muses, already finished with the assignment and staring at the ceiling. To be honest he wasn't even sure how well done the assignment was because his head was hurting again and it felt like he had a fever. A few harsh coughs had already ripped through his body as well. Probably because he was out in the rain yesterday, good job for him.

He was almost thankful for lunch, although all he did was escape to the library since he didn't have much of an appetite. Guess he has a cold because he almost never loses his appetite besides for when he's sick. He's thankful that he's in the library though because he gets a text almost seconds after setting down in the back. Even though phones are allowed at school they aren't at the same time.

_From: Mom_  
_To: Karkat_

_Hey Kitkat, I'm going to have to work later than I thought, I'm needed desperately on this case. There should be money in the jar if you want to order pizza or run to the store. Love you, text me if you need me but I'll be busy so don't wait for an answer._

Oh, he was actually hoping she'd be home for once, great.

The rest of the day passes in a more fever induced haze, that only clears momentarily when he realizes that Gamzee is also in his art class.

"Karbro! I was worried I wouldn't have a class with you," Gamzee cheers as he enters, pulling the smaller teen to sit at a table also containing a few other Juniors.

"Hey Gamz, I didn't expect to have a class with you either," Karkat responds, smiling slightly. He gives the other sophomores a cursory glance, recognizing one of them as Nepeta, and the other one is a mystery.

"Nepeta and strongbro, this is all up and my best bro Karkat, Karkat, these guys," Gamzee introduces with a lazy smile.

"Oh you're in Latin with me! Hi Karkat," Nepeta grins.

"My name is actually Equius, it's a pleasure to meet you," Equius looks almost nervous as he introduces himself.

"Oh, hi." Karkat replies back tiredly. He almost winces at how tired he sounds but looks over at Gamzee.

"Do you like it here or do you regret moving?" He questions with an almost wry smile on his face.

"Nah Karbro I like it here! It's all up and fun to see Tavbro again and to meet these new bros," the juggalo answers with a happy grin.

"Glad you like it here more than I do," Karkat says with a small smile, patting Gamzee's shoulder before turning to the three sitting in front of him. "You're both Juniors right?"

Nepeta shakes her head, "Nope! I'm a sophomore, Equius is the Junior, I've just been put in alot of advanced classes." A proud grin is settled on her face as she tells him this.

Before Equius can say anything the teacher moves to the front of the room, "Alright! Since there's only one more day to the week we won't start anything till Monday, I'm going to take attendance then I expect you to sketch something in your sketchbooks."

Naturally after attendance everyone starts talking, including their little group. Karkat begins to zone out after the three others at his table start off in a conversation about an assignment in one of their other classes.

"Hey Karkat!"

Karkat startles at Gamzee's almost shout, turning to look at the older teen. He almost looks concerned as Karkat shakes off the thoughts that had clouded his mind.

"What's up Gamz," He tries to act nonchalant but his voice cracks as he coughs.

"I was askin' where you got that jacket, I remember you wearin' it at orientation."

"Oh, uh a guy gave it to me," Karkat says, thinking fast. Gamzee's eyebrows scrunch together in concern before realization seems to dawn and he smiles suggestively.

"A guy huh? Since when did you meet a guy and not tell me?" Gamzee would've felt hurt if he wasn't so curious.

_Shit why'd I say that, now I've gotta continue lying...or maybe not._

"Met him at the park the other day, he gave me his jacket when he saw I was cold," Karkat shrugs, as if it's no big deal.

"Ooh now I'm interested," Nepeta butts in, a sly grin crossing her face, "What was his name?"

Karkat pauses, suddenly realizing that he had no clue, "Dunno, he never said."

Nepeta gasps, "Oh no, now you'll never meet each other again, how horrible!"

"It doesn't really matter Nepeta, I'm sure I'll see him again at some point," Karkat chuckles, beginning to form a plan.

"I hope so, that way you can give him back the jacket and all that," Gamzee smiles, standing as the bell rings.

"Yeah," Karkat murmurs, deciding at that moment to go back to the park as soon as possible, preferably tonight.

* * *

**AN:**  
**Sorry for the late update! Although to appease it I typed a damn lot, like, dang diddly son. I did this all in one sitting, And I already know what I need for the next chapter! Hopefully I'll have access to the computer soon enough so that it's not a week later for a new update.**

**Man I can't wait to do the next chapter though, we all know what's goin' on.**

**Wink wonk.**

**Hope you guys liked this chapter,**

**Until the next upload!**


	4. Standing on the Cliff Face

The sky remains overcast but no longer threatens rain, which Karkat decides is a good thing as he begins the process of walking to the park. He has to remember where it was for a good while, since his thoughts seem to be escaping him at the moment. Probably doesn't help that he keeps sneezing every two seconds.

It's already rather late by the time he manages to wander to the small park, and he wonders how he didn't get jumped or some shit on the way here because to be pretty honest he's pretty out of it.

The setting sun seems to be straining to be seen through the thick cloud layer, but only a few rays land on the damp grass, even those quickly fading away. It's not even that late yet, not even seven but it seems like fall is taking its hold early.

Karkat sighs and leans against the metal play structure, facing the beginning of the treeline. He hopes that the yellow shirted guy will show, hell, maybe he won't and it was all a hallucination. Is he crazy? He's honestly not that sure anymore. The fabric seems to feel heavy on his skin, almost as if reminding him that it's there.

Movement catches his eye and he turns quickly to follow it, immediately regretting the motion when his head pounds. He loses sight of whatever it was when he leans his head in his hands. He can feel that his face is flushed from a fever and he begins to worry if he'll be able to get home. He does have to walk after all, damn, this wasn't as well thought out as it should've been.

Karkat realizes that there are footsteps approaching, and he leans his head up to see that crouching a few feet away is the winged boy, the golden appendages tucked against his back and partially splayed behind him. He's staring curiously until he realizes that Karkat is staring back, then he quickly looks away.

"Hey," Karkat greets, his voice breaking the heavy silence that had built.

"Oh, uh, hi," The other teen seems to scramble for something to say, which makes Karkat tilt his head and smile shallowly.

"What's your name? You never did tell me," He starts off, moving so that he's sitting cross legged instead of keeping his knees close to his chest.

"My name is Sollux, what's yours?" Sollux answers warily, but then moving a bit closer so that Karkat can almost reach out and touch him.

"Heh, I'm Karkat, I honestly didn't expect you to show, since there's no way you can be real or anything," Karkat see's Sollux frown, and feels himself smiling again.

"What do you mean there's no way I can be real, I'm right here aren't I?"

"You have wings though!" Karkat says in response, waving an arm over Sollux's shoulder. Sollux flinches, but doesn't move back at the action.

"I still don't understand," Sollux replies, shaking his head. Karkat rolls his eyes, but quickly finds that to be a bad move when his head pounds.

"Hey are you ok?" Sollux looks concerned as Karkat grimaces, once again moving his knees to his chest.

"Yeah not really, but I'll be fine. I forgot what I came here for...oh yeah," Karkat mumbles, eyes sort of glazing over as he remembers why he was waiting out here in the first place. He tries to slide off the jacket but finds that Sollux's hand has somehow ended up on his shoulder and is keeping the material from moving.

When Sollux notices what he's done he instead sets back and waves his hands in a placating way, "I only meant that you can keep it, I mean I already told them that I'd lost it so it's fine for you to keep it."

Karkat frowns, feeling like Sollux is lying somehow, but then again he's really cold, when did it get so cold? He shivers underneath Sollux's unsure gaze and pulls his phone from his pocket, contemplating asking Gamzee to come get him or something. Then again he doesn't really feel like he can look at th e bright screen of his phone without throwing up.

"I don't think you're ok, are you sick or something?" Sollux hesitantly presses his palm against Karkat's forehead, brushing away the teen's bangs and withdrawing his hand quickly after making contact with his skin.

"You're burning up, do you live near here or should I ask someone to come get you?" Sollux thinks quickly, seeing that Karkat's holding a phone, and carefully removes it from Karkat's loose grip, and when he receives no protest begins to go through the contacts.

He tilts his head at the strange names, and nicknames it seems, before he pauses above one, KERAMIN (MOM).

"Should I call your mom?"

Karkat's eyes widen and he becomes more lucid, quickly latching onto Sollux's arm with a surprisingly strong grip, "No no don't call her, I don't want her to be angry at me for interrupting her during a case, please don't."

Sollux seems more shocked from the contact than anything, but nods and continues looking through, "Ok who then?"

Karkat takes a moment to think before answering, "Text Gamz, he might actually answer the phone, don't call him though because he won't recognize your voice," Karkat allows his arm to fall and he shivers a bit more.

Sollux feels worry course through him, and he scrolls around before finding 'Gamz' and creating a message.

_From: Karkat_

_To: Gamzee_

_hey gamz can you come get me please? I'm at the park at the corner of scratch ave and fang blvd._

He isn't very shocked to receive an answer seconds later.

_From: Gamzee_

_To: Karkat_

_On my way karbro whats all up and wrong :O(_

Sollux doesn't bother to answer since he doesn't know what he'd say, instead he carefully hands Karkat back the device, closing the teen's fingers around it when Karkat doesn't. Sollux can faintly detect them calling for him, which is surprising because it's so early, usually they're fine with letting him stay out longer. He knows that Karkat will hear them too if he doesn't go back.

"Hey will you be alright till he gets here? He shouldn't be too long," Sollux tries to keep the nervous tone out of his voice, but he can see Karkat glance at him. Although, it seems that Karkat feels more panicked that Sollux will be leaving so quickly.

"You'll stay till he gets here won't you?" Karkat's voice almost makes Sollux want to stay, but he can hear them calling louder and closer, and he just can't take that chance.

"I have to go, they're looking for me and I don't know how they'll feel about you," Sollux replies with guilt, but fear overpowers the guilt when he hears them near to the treeline. His wings quiver and unconsciously lifts him from the crouch to a few feet away from Karkat.

"Sorry," He murmurs earnestly as he turns and begins running swiftly towards the treeline, forcing his wings to keep still as they spread out behind him, as if preparing for flight.

Karkat can only watch as Sollux's silhouette fades into the trees, and wonder who was calling for him.

The humming of a familiar (and crappy) motor catches his attention and he turns his head to see Gamzee 's van idling in the parking lot, the gangly teen walking towards him.

Karkat grimaces internally as he attempts to stand, having to lean heavily on the metal playstructure behind him as his head spins.

"Karkat what are you all up and doin' out here so late?" Gamzee questions, watching carefully as Karkat swallows hard and tries to reply.

"Just seeing if I could return the guy's jacket," Karkat replies simply, but hoping that Gamzee doesn't sense the lie that seems to be obvious to him.

"Aw, did he not show Karbro?" Gamzee asks, frowning sympathetically. Karkat just shrugs, beginning to take a step forward before stopping abruptly as his head pounds.

Gamzee watches him carefully, observing that Karkat looked like he would fall over any second.

"You alright Karkat?" Gamzee can't understand what Karkat mumbles in response, so he takes a few steps closer and copies what Sollux had done earlier, brushing aside Karkat's bangs and feeling his forehead. Although Gamzee isn't as afraid of the contact and just frowns more as he takes a step back and leans down to look at Karkat's eyes.

"You're burnin' up Karbro," Gamzee doesn't waste a second to pick up the smaller teen and carry him back to the still idling van. Karkat weakly protests that he can walk himself but ends up just allowing Gamzee to set him down in the passenger seat.

"Is your mom home? Or should I call her," Gamzee asks, seeing that Karkat is still holding his phone.

"No it's fine, don't bother her, just take me home," Karkat replies quickly, having to cough when his voice starts to get raspy.

"Are you sure Karbro..." Gamzee trails off when he notices something glimmering near his feet.

"Yeah I'll be fine Gamz," Karkat attempts a smile before leaning his head back against the seat. Gamzee nods, closing the door then picking up the glimmering thing near his feet. After turning it around in his hand, he realizes that it's a single honey shaded feather. The thing is almost as long as half his forearm and nearly as wide.

Gamzee shrugs and keeps ahold of it as he gets in and drives Karkat home, immediately seeing once he pulls into the driveway that there are no cars and that all the lights are turned out. Had Karkat even come home? Gamzee looks over to ask him when he realizes Karkat's asleep. He shakes his head with a small smile as he gets out.

"Guess it's a good thing my bro's getting some Z's, guess I'll have to all up and carry you in." Gamzee lifts him bridal style, tucking the feather in Karkat's jacket pocket. He was lucky enough for the back door to be unlocked, so he contemplates turning on some lights before leaving them off for now.

He knew Karkat's room was just down the hall so he sets Karkat on his bed before quietly walking back out to the kitchen. He gets a glass of water and some medicine stuff before walking back and setting it on the bedside. He chews his lip in contemplation, because he really doesn't want to leave his sick bro alone, but he knows that Keramin wouldn't want to find him in their house this late.

To solve the issue he just decides to write her a note and leave it on the table where she'd most likely see it.

_Hey Karkat's mom, Karbro all up and has a fever. He was asleep when I drove him home so I didn't give him any medicine but I left some stuff on his bedside table in case he wakes up. He didn't want me to call you which is why I didn't. Just thought I'd tell you, -Gamzee._

Gamzee sighs and flips on the kitchen light before setting the note down on the table. He tries not to feel guilty as he closes the door and walks out to his van, he knows that it's better if he leaves because Keramin never has really liked him much. Gamzee shakes his head to clear his thoughts and begins driving away, one little thought nagging him.

Where did that feather come from?

* * *

**AN:**

**What's this? An quick update? **

**Ok not going to lie I've been waiting to post this chapter because I had it typed up but I hate doing back to back updates (unsure why, just a thing) but gah I love this chapter. I hope you guys do too, because my goodness we find out the winged apparition has a name!(*cough* we all knew his name anyway *cough*) and I mean I finally get to like reveal some stuff in this chapter. **

**Ah well, I'll shut up now, hope you guys liked it!**

**Until the next upload!**


	5. Take a Deep Breath And Figure It Out

Karkat is mumbles for whoever it is that's shaking him awake to go away, but when they don't he opens an eye to wince back at the sudden influx of light. It makes his head pound with renewed force, but he now recognizes the voice making him wake up to be his mother.

"Karkat will you please wake up for a few minutes, I'll let you go back to sleep then," Her voice sounds exasperated and Karkat nods into the pillow to indicate that he's listening.

He hears her sigh and turns his head to look at her, she stares back and shakes her head, "You've got a high enough fever that I can't make you go to school, take these," She thrusts some pills into his hands and points at the glass of water sitting on his bedside table. "Gamzee brought you home last night, I'll question you more later, I'm leaving at two, try to eat something alright?"

Karkat winces as he sits up, realizing that he must have one hell of a cold when he gets lightheaded and coughs. The pills are bitter and the water is room temperature, but he chokes them down and looks over at her again. He really doesn't feel like he can either get up or keep food down, which he can see her realize.

"I'll try to fix something for you before I start working, try not to go to sleep till then," she sighs, brushing hair out of her face and staring at him almost accusingly, like it was his own fault that he got sick. _Well, it kind of is_, he amends, sinking back into the mattress.

It's relatively early, only eight, meaning he'd have to suffer through the entire day, what a joy. His phone buzzes shortly in the indication that he had gotten a message awhile ago and is just reminding him that it was still there. He could already guess it was from Gamzee.

_To Karkat_

_From Gamzee_

_Hey bro im all up and guessin youre still sick so ill get your work and stuff for you dont worry about it_

_To Gamzee_

_From Karkat_

_thanks gamz ill probably be back tomorrow_

He doesn't receive an answer, probably because classes have been in session for nearly an hour. Probably a good thing that the teen wasn't texting in class though, he never really cared about rules at the other school, guess he's actually trying this year.

He looks up from his phone as his mom walks in, carrying a steaming mug and a sleeve of crackers.

"This was the best I could do, I'll be in my office till two then I have to leave for work. I won't be out too late, text me if you need me," She lists, setting the food items on the side table. She barely gives him a second glance as she walks out again.

"And the prize goes to," Karkat mutters, seeing that the mug is filled with plain chicken broth. Not horrible, at least she thought to bring crackers. It's grocery day tomorrow anyway, if she bothers to go shopping before heading off to the all important cases she always seems to be working on. Karkat understands that work as a detective is taxing for her but at the same time she's never home to do anything. Plus she's going for a higher position, meaning any time she gets the opportunity to work, she takes it.

He sighs and stirs a spoon in the broth, nearly gagging at the smell of it. Yeah he definitely wasn't going to be able to stomach this for another few hours. He leans back again, beginning to put his hands in the jacket pockets and stopping when his hand brushes against something. A curious look comes over his face as he pulls out a feather. He immediately recognizes it as one from the winged teen, Sollux.

He looks at it under light, tilting it all different ways and watching how light reflects off of it. It almost glimmers as it reflects sunlight onto the wall, and his sits up straighter, trying to figure out how it'd gotten into his pocket. He hadn't changed out of the clothes he'd worn yesterday, maybe while he was in a fever induced haze he'd picked it up, but he doesn't think that's very likely.

He frowns thoughtfully and twirls in between his fingers, setting it gently on the side table and sliding out of bed. He forces himself to change into more comfortable clothes before nearly collapsing back onto the bed. Just so that the medicine won't make him any more sick than he already is, he nibbles on a few crackers before just lying and staring at the clock.

Sleeping seems like a good idea right about now, he thinks tiredly, knowing there's nothing he can do until his mom goes off to work. Then he won't have to worry about his TV being too loud, or sneaking past her to get to the computer. Falling into a fitful sleep was less than preferably but better than staring at the wall for hours.

* * *

The lab is shadowed amongst trees and Karkat wonders where he's seen this place, it's nearly familiar but he can't place how. Barbed wire surrounds the perimeter but it's easy to walk through while dreaming.

_Lucid again, shocker._

The place almost seems to be hiding from him as he walks up to the door, finding that the door is not a door, and just a picture in a frame that falls once he touches it. _Odd._

Fluttering catches his attention and he looks up to see a flash of gold going around the side of the building. He follows it easily and finds another door, this one thick metal and with many latches and locks. The locks all click open as he presses his hand against it and the door creaks open slowly.

_Man I have weird dreams when I'm sick,_ Karkat murmurs to himself as the room in front of him is swallowed in thickening mist. The door behind him is replaced by black nothingness, and he can already tell he's trapped in the building. Even though he wills some form of light to appear, it doesn't.

_Not so lucid after all,_ He thinks curiously. Instead, he tries to adjust his eyes to the darkness surrounding him. It's almost like he was surrounded by a thin halo of light, allowing him to see a foot or so around him in all directions. When walking forward, the light follows. Exploring the place seems like the only option now, the only option to get out anyway.

He begins wandering almost blindly, running into walls more often than not and finding only two doors that lead him into even more shadowed hallways. The light that led him this far snaps out of existence as he enters what looks like a training gym, only without any training gear. Mirrors surround him on all sides, and a dim light glows from the floor.

He can see his own curious expression that he can't escape from, only looking away as something drips down onto his forehead. Looking up and putting a hesitant hand to his head, he sees that the drop is a deep crimson: blood. Now avidly searching the ceiling, more of the lack of a ceiling, for the source, he's even more shocked when feathers begin floating down around him, the ones not coated in blood a deep honey colour.

Karkat's eyes widen and a scream is ripped from him when someone falls from the space where the ceiling would be, only getting a glimpse of a blood soaked teen before getting ripped out of the dream.

* * *

A cold sweat covers his body as he sits up, holding at his head and breathing hard. He wipes a hand over his face in an attempt to get ahold of himself and looks over at the clock, seeing that it's a little past three, meaning his mom is long gone. She probably left even earlier than she said she would anyway.

Karkat looks hesitantly over at the feather he'd set off to the side, expecting it to be covered in blood and gore and relieved when it just has its golden honey sheen.

_That wasn't even a dream, it was a nightmare_, he thinks back to the sight of the teen, realizing the reason that he'd screamed was because of the winglike bones protruding from the teens back; they were slicked with blood.

"I sure hope that it just remains a nightmare," He murmurs to himself, thoughts immediately going to Sollux as he looks at the feather again. The teen almost resembled him, but he hadn't gotten a good enough look at the face before he was ripped away. He frowns as he thinks back to when he was talking to Sollux after he'd texted Gamzee.

I have to go, they're looking for me and I don't know how they'll feel about you he'd said, maybe he was talking about his parents? Odd though, if he was, wouldn't parents that had a kid with wings tell people about it?

This whole situation is just downright strange.

Karkat sighs and brushes his hair back away from his forehead, realizing that his headache has been reduced to a weak throb, and his cough hasn't been leaving him breathless like it had while he was awake. At least he got better quickly, now he feels like he could eat something.

He temporarily puts the nightmare out of his mind as he carries the mug of broth down to the kitchen, now only slightly unsure on his feet. He reheats it in the microwave and heads over to the computer instead of back upstairs. Keramin had forced him to keep the desktop down here because he'd stayed up too late when it's in his room. He didn't really care since he had his laptop but right now it's charging so he can't use it.

Now returning to thoughts on the dream, he opens up a tab for Google maps, searching for a few minutes before getting an overhead view of the town. He takes a few sips of the poorly seasoned broth and frowns as he hovers the mouse over the small park, seeing that it's called Medium Park. Weird name, weirder location. There's nothing but forests for miles on two sides of it, other than the two sides of it facing the park.

Where does Sollux live then if not in the immediate housing developments? He knows that there would be no way Sollux would be in the houses nearby because there would've been a large uproar at some point about a kid with wings, unless if he'd been well hidden for so long.

But then why did Sollux run into the forest?

Karkat zooms out to get a wider view and moves the map so that the forest takes up the entirety of his view. He bites his lip in his frown, chewing it thoughtfully as he sees that there's still nothing but trees...

There! A small block of grey catches his attention and he zooms back in, now seen that it's clearly the corner of a large building. It must have trees on the roof or something because it's almost completely camouflaged amongst the forest around it.

He takes mental note of the place before looking over at the park, seeing how far away it is. His eyes widen in puzzlement, it's nearly ten to twenty miles away, if that's where Sollux went then he had quite a walk. Unless if he flew, that would probably take less time...can Sollux even fly? Or are those wings just for show? Karkat shakes away those thoughts as he gets distracted, returning to the issue at hand.

He'll just have to figure it out on his own then, he can't go today because he still feels pretty shitty, and tomorrow will be Friday so Gamzee will definitely want to do something, he'll go hiking on Saturday then.

Karkat smirks, yes a little hike wouldn't hurt, he's pretty curious about all of this anyway, and all the nightime confrontations were risky.

He prints out a map of the area and deletes the searches in case his mom bothered to check, like she ever did, and marks quickly where the building was. It's still not very late so he goes back up to his room, if anything he can start working on that Latin review that Mrs. Doloria assigned.

* * *

**AN:**  
**Sorry for the amount of time to get the update out, I haven't had much time on the computer lately. Also I'm sorry for how short the chapters have been lately, I'll try to get them longer (next chapter I'll probably split into two parts with what I've been thinking of doing).**

**Any italicized bits are when Karkat is thinking to himself, except after the nightmare when nearly everything is him thinking to himself. **

**Keramin has a job as a detective at a local station and is about to be promoted to head detective, which is why she's rarely around. Her job requires her to work strange hours depending on the cases she's given. **

**I think that's about it, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll try to get the next one posted quicker!**

**Until the next upload!**


	6. Now You've Walked Into a Storm

Karkat spends the next few days thinking about how he's going to find Sollux on Saturday, even Tavros commented on how absentminded he's been.

At the feeling of something hitting his forehead he jerks out of his thoughts and glares accusingly at Gamzee, who smiles. Karkat picks up the eraser bits that had been tossed at him and flicks them back, smirking as all but one hit their mark.

"You've been zoning out all day Karbro, thinkin' about your mystery man," Gamzee waggles his eyebrows and ducks another flying eraser.

"Shut up Gamz," Karkat huffs, unsuccessfully keeping his smile at bay.

"You know I'm right Kar," Gamzee sing-songs, wrapping an arm around Karkat's shoulders. Karkat smacks Gamzee's arm away and sticks out his tongue, pointedly returning to the sketch of a pile of objects they need to complete for next class.

Gamzee shakes his head slightly and works on sketching as well, although he refocuses his attention on Karkat after a few minutes, "Oh yeah are we still all up and doing that thing after school, the go to the library and do nothing thing?"

"Of course Gamz, mom's working on more late cases so she won't care at all," Karkat replies with a hopefully not as bitter as he feels smile.

"Awesome, Tavbro said he's gotta help his uncle with something so he won't be able to meet us," Gamzee gives Karkat a sideways glance, "Have you talked to Terezi yet?"

Karkat tenses slightly and forces himself to relax, "No, she texted me a few days ago but I never answered."

He ignores Gamzee's frown and keeps sketching, focusing his attention on the somewhat discernible pile of objects. He see's Gamzee open his mouth to say something, but the teen stops himself and instead sighs.

"You're going to have to talk to her a some point bro," Is all Gamzee says before turning to Nepeta and Equius and joining their conversation.

Karkat stops sketching and collects his thoughts, now worrying between thoughts of talking to Terezi and finding Sollux. He had tried messaging Terezi about the new school but she'd never answered so it's basically like he'd never replied. And finding Sollux he quickly found out would be a whole ordeal because his mom wanted to interrogate him about where he'd been when Gamzee drove him home.

He planned to leave before she could but sometimes she caught him and forced him to spill his guts. He realizes he's zoning out again when Gamzee pokes his forehead, pulling him from his thoughts.

"Dang Karbro, it must be some guy," Gamzee chuckles.

"Shut up Gamz."

* * *

Saturday couldn't come quick enough, although Friday was fun with the whole library thing. They practically had something of a feelings jam, although Karkat has yet to tell Gamzee about Sollux. The only thing the Juggalo brought up was the feather, which Karkat played it off like he had no clue.

The sun has barely risen as Karkat silently slides out of bed, avoiding the creaky spots of his floor as he gets dressed, making sure to grab his more worn pair of converse and lacing them up. The map is securely in his pocket along with his phone. He'd left a note on his bed saying that he couldn't sleep and went out for a walk, silently saying that he didn't know when he'd come back.

His housekey is securely underneath his shirt and just because he'd gotten used to the habit from when he snuck out and could pry his window open that one night he slides his pocketknife beside his phone. He faintly hears a door open down the hall, knowing that it's his mom getting up and walking to the kitchen to make her morning coffee. Time to get moving.

His window opens silently and he holds onto the sill before dropping to the ground in a crouch, since his room's on the second floor and all it's a bit of a drop. He creeps around the back of the house, avoiding the low windows into the kitchen and breaking into a quick jog down the street, making sure to get far enough away that his mom wouldn't look out and see him before slowing down.

It was all planned out in Karkat's head, trekking through the forest would take a few hours, so he gave himself three hours of leeway before he says he'll give up. He's told Gamzee the basics of what he's doing so Gamzee knows where to pick him up again. He knows that his phone will get signal, even if he's in the middle of the forest.

Medium park is naturally deserted this early in the morning, and Karkat had only spotted a few joggers and such along the way here, none of them really questioned him. Giving one last look at the small park, he begins walking into the forest.

* * *

After getting out of sight from the park, Karkat see's that there's a barely worn path leading into the forest. It's stuttering, so most of the time he's walking through plants, but more often than not he can easily follow it. He glances at the map and knows that the path isn't there, but from what he can tell it's pretty much leading him straight to the mysterious building.

His phone buzzes once, an alert that one hour has passed. He knows he's still nowhere near the building, but so far the trek hasn't been overly horrible. His phone buzzes again, this time indicating that he has a message. Checking it, he scowls when he sees that it's his mom, saying that he better get his ass back home within the hour.

He contemplates the ups and downs of replying when he trips over an errant tree root.

"Ah son of a bitch!" He curses as his phone skids away from him. "Dammit, these were decent jeans too," he grumbles, picking at the tears on his knees. He has to search the underbrush for a few minutes before he recovers his phone, resolving to answer.

_From Karkat_

_To Mom_

_im at gamzees now and we re going to tavros's today ill be home by tonight phones dying sorry_

A lie she wouldn't question much, now he'll have to get Gamzee in on it too.

_From Karkat_

_To Gamzee_

_hey my mom started questioning where i was so i said with you and that we re going to tavros's and i know youre already there so it mostly works out_

_cover for me?_

_From Gamzee_

_To Karkat_

_i gotcha bro dont worry_

_and yeah im all up and at tavs :O)_

_good luck with your search, hope you all up and find him ;O)_

Karkat smiles faintly, at least Gamzee's always willing to help him out. His mom had only replied with a curt 'Fine' that indicated he's going to get a very long and stern lecture along with an interrogation once he gets home. That'll be fun.

He only trips twice more when he finds a path worn down by vehicles. Curiosity and panic fills him and he ducks behind some trees, being less than subtle as his feet crash through the underbrush. He stares at the dirt road for a few moments as his phone buzzes twice, two hours, but he has a feeling that he won't have to give up though.

He remains out of sight of the road, walking parallel to it by hiding in the shadows of trees and straining his ears for any indication of people nearby. He doesn't have to wait long as something like a jeep appears from in front of him on the road, propelling past him in high speeds and leaving him shocked for a few seconds. He hadn't even heard it until it was already past him.

Ten more minutes of walking before another jeep-like vehicle, driving slower but still faster than you would expect, careens down the road. He can hear people yelling inside before it's out of sight.

Karkat gets the feeling that he really shouldn't be here.

He ignores the feeling and checks to make sure he has everything, knife, map, key, phone, check. He doesn't have to walk much further before the building comes into sight. He ducks down as he hears voices, getting the feeling that he really really shouldn't be here as he catches sight of guards in front of the barbed wire fences. He can clearly see guns strapped to their waists, and looking at their faces, they're willing to use them.

Karkat's eyes scan the place, and they widen as he recognizes it as the place from his dream, weird that he'd never been here before though. He's jerked from his thoughts as one of the jeeps drive up, letting the guards open the gates for them. A quick decision makes Karkat retreat into the surrounding forest until he can just barely see the building.

The perimeter is surrounded by barbed wire fences, and there's a guard every few feet. The building is huge, length and width wise, it's only a story tall, but Karkat suspects that it goes deeper underground.

How could a building like this go so unnoticed? Wouldn't it have drawn attention when it was being built?

After walking in an almost complete circle around the place, Karkat moves even further back, finding the pen in his jacket pocket and flipping the map over. He sketches a quick outline of the building, drawing out details like the guards, doors, and fences. He isn't exactly sure why he's doing this, but he feels it's important. He even attempts to make it to a scale, although he discards that idea quickly.

He jots a few notes about suspicions about the building, like that it runs underground, on the sides of the margins, glancing up every few seconds to make sure he hasn't been noticed.

Footsteps nearby make him glance up, and he skitters further back until he can no longer hear them, dropping his defensive position with a small sigh. He begins folding up the map when he hears the footsteps behind him.

The person grabs a tight hold on his arm, and Karkat prevents himself from making any sound as he's dragged backwards.

* * *

**AN:**

**Because this chapter's so short I'm going to just go ahead and update (because I've been typing all day and won't be on the computer for a bit). **

**I'll give you more information and such in the next chapter, I'll apologize in advance for the wait. **

**Hope you enjoy this (really short my goodness) chapter.**

**Until the next upload!**


	7. Confusion Runs Rampant

Quick on the draw, Karkat slams his elbow into the persons ribs and dances away from whoever it is, ready to run if he has to. He doesn't expect to see Sollux with an arm wrapped around his ribs with a wince marring his features. His wings have moved to almost cover him, and Karkat stares for a few seconds before taking a step forward, opening his mouth to apologize.

Sollux backs away from him seemingly instinctively, holding the other arm up in a 'stay right there' fashion. Karkat almost feels hurt at the action, still not saying anything as Sollux regains his breath, looking at Karkat carefully.

"What are you doing here," The winged teen asks quickly, a sense of urgency making Karkat frown.

"I-," Karkat realizes that he never actually figured out the real reason he'd come here, other than he wanted to figure out where Sollux lived, but that's a bit creepy so he doesn't want to outright say it. "I just-"

Sollux shakes his head, walking forward and grabbing ahold of Karkat's arm. This time it's Karkats turn to wince. Sollux doesn't seem to notice as he pulls Karkat away, starting to run once Karkat follows.

"Hey!-"

Sollux slaps a hand over Karkat's mouth and looks around, as if making sure they haven't been followed, "Please just be quiet until we're further away, you can't get caught here," He pleads, beginning to run again before Karkat can say anything.

Sollux is faster than Karkat would think, it's hard for even him to keep up, and he prides himself on his speed. Maybe it's because of the wings, he remembers reading somewhere that birds have thinner and lighter bones so that they can fly. Before he can dwell on those thoughts Sollux slows to a stop, barely breathing hard as Karkat does.

"Listen, you can't come out to the Lab, they'll kill you, or worse, believe me," Sollux begins, nervously looking past Karkat's shoulder.

"What? Do you live here?" Karkat can't seem to find the right questions to ask, feeling completely confused as Sollux shakes his head.

"I can't tell you, you have to leave now, before one of them find you, you're lucky it was me," Sollux finally releases him, taking a few steps back. "You can't ever come back here, promise me."

Karkat frowns, but nods, "Ok, can you come to Medium park tonight then? Explain a bit more?"

Sollux hesitates, biting his lip before nodding. Karkat notices that the teen has a light sprinkling of freckles, something he couldn't see in the night when they'd always found each other.

"Sollux! What'd you run off for?" A voice calls out, still a distance away.

Sollux turns to him, fear plain on his face, "Run, hurry, I'll meet you tonight," to emphasize this Sollux gives him a gentle push before turning away. Karkat watches as the teen leaps into the air, wings snapping out and disappearing into the trees, only his voice reaching Karkat.

"Thought I saw something, thought I'd check it out."

Karkat turns and begins running, only one thought managing to stand out in his mind.

_Sollux can fly._

* * *

He's severely out of breath by the time he stumbles back to Medium park, but now he can see there are a few parents with children here, so he pretends that he didn't just run out of the forest and moves to sit on an unoccupied bench.

He regains his breath and pulls out his phone, seeing that his mom had messaged him, so had Gamzee. He had an even worse feeling.

_From: Mom_

_To: Karkat_

_Where the hell are you_

_From: Gamzee_

_To: Karkat_

_your mom came over and asked if you were here_

_i said you went out for a walk but didnt tell her where_

_karkat shes pissed_

Shit.

Karkat weighs his options, go home now and get in what will probably be a major fight with his mom or call Gamzee to come get him. Although, Gamzee will probably no longer be a safe haven if his mom had already gone there.

Dammit he's out of options.

A sigh explodes out of him as he stands, reaching for the map in his pocket.

And finding it isn't there.

* * *

All hell broke loose the moment he walked into the back door, his mom waiting for him in the kitchen with a scowl engraved into her face and her arms crossed across her chest. Her entire demeanor just screamed aggravated and pissed.

"How was your walk," She spits once the door is closed securely behind him.

"Fine," One word answers are safest in situations like this.

"You never went to Gamzee's, not today or two nights ago, where have you been going." She's going straight for the interrogation today, but Karkat isn't in the mood to be berated, he just wants to brood in his thoughts until he sneaks out again tonight.

"Places."

Her eyes narrow and Keramin slams her hand down on the table, "Karkat Vantas I will not put up with your shit right now. Where. Were. You."

"Why do you care!" Karkat yells back, walking to push past her and hide in his room, but she grabs his elbow in a firm hold.

"You're not going anywhere until you tell me and I care because it's my job to," She hisses, obviously trying not to yell.

"I thought your job was to not be around and to nag me when you are," Karkat replies, jerking out of her grasp and turning around to face her. He watches as her face grows red with anger, obviously thinking how to go about this.

"No more going out except for school, give me your key and phone," She holds out her hand, waiting for him to just place the phone and key in it. Karkat narrows his eyes, clenching his fists and glaring.

"It's not like that'll stop me," He says scathingly as he pulls the key from around his neck and handing over his phone. He was quite thankful that all of his messages are deleted five minutes after being read, because he knows she'd try to look through them.

"You're grounded for the month, no going out, no computer, I'm taking your TV and gaming stations away, and your laptop," She brushes past him, surely going to his room to make good of those threats.

"Go ahead, not like I can't still sneak out my window," He mutters, watching as she carries everything into her office, giving him one last commanding look as he walks into his room and slams the door.

"I'm leaving in an hour and coming back by nine, if you're not here I'm going to keep your phone for another two months," She shouts, her voice barely carrying through the wood.

"Fine see if I care," Karkat mutters, throwing himself on his bed and shoving his face into his pillow. She'd done this when he'd gotten kicked out of the school, except then she'd been less pissed off.

His eyes widen as he sits up, "Shit how am I going to meet with Sollux while on lockdown." He checks his window and yep, she'd put the locks on them while he'd been out, an old trick of hers. She had the key, they were easy to unlock but they locked back automatically when closed and couldn't be opened from the outside.

She was really serious about this.

He knew where she always hid his stuff in her office though, so if anything he could go get it while she was out. He knows he'll have four hours of her not being here before she gets back, since she'll be leaving around five.

Guess he'll have to sneak out the hard and old fashioned way, waiting till his mom's asleep then going out the back door. This method's more risky since his mom is a somewhat light sleeper, and that she could be called for a case at any moment. He needs to risk it though, because he needs to know what the hells going on.

* * *

Karkat doesn't bother sneaking his stuff out of his moms office, instead working on the assignments from art class and studying Latin. Highschool's not as lenient on homework he finds, most teachers had assigned things over the weekend due on Monday. Usually he wouldn't do it, but he doesn't have anything better to do.

One thing he's ultimately worried about is the map, with how worried Sollux was about being seen, leaving the map might've been a huge mistake. He hears his mom come home exactly at nine, for once. Judging from the crinkling of plastic bags she'd gone to the grocery. He almost has half a mind to help her before he remembers that they're both pissed off at each other.

He taps his pen against the desk he's sitting at and listens carefully as she moves around the kitchen, then coming upstairs to her office. She stops outside his door, but doesn't come in. He glances at the clock, seeing that if she went to bed like normal he can leave in two or three hours. If she got a call it could be sooner or later.

He begins dwelling on Sollux and the 'Lab' as he had called it. So many questions about the place, w_hy did it need guards, why is it so well guarded, how had it been built without anyone noticing, why hasn't anyone noticed or questioned it, and why had the place been in his dream_?

He huffs and rocks back in his chair, getting frustrated at all the things he doesn't know.

Karkat lowers the chair back down and listens closely, hearing exactly what he wants to: nothing. He grins, looking at the clock to see he'd wasted enough time thinking that she had to be asleep. On quiet feet he clicks off his light and climbs into bed, just to make it sound like he's going to bed. He lays there for a good ten minutes, making sure his mom didn't wake up or anything before quietly walking over to his door.

He'd found his spare key to the house earlier, and he plans to put it underneath one of the bricks beside the door so that he'll be able to get back inside. His door creaks slightly, and he winces before freezing, one foot outside the door frame. He stands there holding his breath until he's sure his mom won't wake up. Her door's slightly opened, meaning she can hear out into the hall.

Annoyance surges through him seeing that, and he doesn't totally close his door as he toes off his shoes, picking them up so that he can walk silently past her door. Once downstairs he allows himself a grin, before he looks at the door.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me," He hisses, glaring at the bell now hanging from the door handle. She'd done that the first time he'd tried sneaking out too, it's insulting how easy it is to get past it. He thinks quickly of a solution, grabbing a kitchen towel and wrapping it around the bell so that it will make little noise as he opens the door.

"Home free," He whispers once outside, flipping off the house as he locks the door behind him before hiding the key.

Time to find some answers.

* * *

**AN: **

**I apologize for the late update, I haven't had much time on the computer. **

**But oh boy from here on out it's gonna get interesting.**

**I'll try to update soon but there's no promises, hope you guys like this chapter though!**

**Until the next upload...**


	8. Did I Just Solve A 15 Year Old Mystery?

**_Sorry I haven't updated in so long, I've been working mainly on a Rooster Teeth story so I haven't put much time into this (a bad thing because I now have nearly ten unfinished posted stories and dozens of unposted ones)_**

**_Anyway, I'm trying to figure out where the hell I'm going with this story, which is why updates are taking a bit longer. I apologize but I'll try to improve on that._**

**_Also I recently deleted the DOC chapters to DYDFTSK and I nearly started crying, but they took up too much space. I'm still in the workings of backstory to that as well._**

**Answer to Gak23:**

**Ok so the jacket issue I realized after re-reading the chapter and I will say that I might end up writing an explanation in the story but probably not so I'll just tell you. The fabric material is molecularly unstable so if you slice through it, you can make it form together again. So when Sollux took it off, the holes in the back for his wings simply rejoined so Karkat never noticed. No the answer isn't completely logical but we'll pretend it is.**

**_Also, I know nothing of coding and I didn't have the time to research so just pretend that that part is logical. And the hybrid bit is also made up by me, I think it's logical but then again I've been reading alot of hybrid AU's lately so it might not be._**

**_Hope you guys enjoy this chapter,_**

**_Until the next upload!_**

* * *

Karkat waits just past the treeline instead of by the metal and plastic play structure. He almost wants to check his phone before reminding himself that it's still locked away in his mom's office. It's late, he can easily tell that much as he leans against a tree, staring up at the clouded night sky and watching the moon crawl through the misty covers. When it's beginning it's descent, he hears a crackle of leaves that makes him jump.

He looks down, wincing as his neck pops, to see Sollux standing about ten feet away. The winged teen glances around nervously before gesturing for him to walk over. Karkat stares in confusion but approaches the teen nonetheless, becoming more skeptical when Sollux leads him further into the forest, stopping only when they're completely out of sight of the surrounding town.

"Sorry to have chased you off earlier today, but you shouldn't have tried looking for me," Sollux begins quietly, staring down at his feet, which Karkat notices are still bare.

"I've got so many fucking questions for you," Karkat sighs, "For one, why the hell shouldn't I look for you, and is that where you live?"

Sollux looks even more nervous, "I-I can't answer those," He stutters, glancing at Karkat through sandy lashes.

"And why the hell not?" Karkat growls, forcing down his frustration. He hates being in the dark on things, especially things like this.

"Because I don't want you to get hurt!" Sollux replies, shocking Karkat with how earnest he sounds.

Karkat shakes his head and walks closer to the Sollux, reaching out to tilt his head up, and stopping when he flinches. His voice it firm as he tries to catch Sollux's unsure gaze, "Listen, there's no way they could hurt me, I wasn't about to let whoever they are catch me."

"You don't understand," Sollux voice is strangled as he stares earnestly at Karkat, a slice of moonlight illuminating his face. Karkat suddenly notices that the teen's eyes are two different colours, how could he have missed that?

"What could they possibly do to me, arrest me for being on private property? I don't know how legal they are themselves," Karkat scoffs, crossing his arms.

Sollux shakes his head roughly, "I don't want to tell you what they could do, just promise me you won't go looking for me like that," He grabs Karkat's shoulders, gazing at him pleadingly as he shakes the smaller teen.

Karkat's silent for a few moments before sighing, "You know I'd be less curious about the place if you'd tell me why it's so bad."

Sollux yells something unintelligible as he whirls away from Karkat, sounding something like 'verruckt' before turning back, his feathers puffed in agitation.

"I don't want to tell you because the horrors that happen there are worse than death, can you just trust me on this? It's bad enough that I'm out here right now, they could kill me for straying this far from the lab."

"Kill you?" Karkat stares wide-eyed at the teen in front of him, "What do you mean by that?"

Sollux mutters under his breath, running his fingers through his hair before deciding to answer. "I can't tell you, believe me, you're better off not knowing."

Karkat shakes his head slowly, "It seems like every time I talk to you I end up with more questions than answers."

"Well you've talked to me a total of three times and one time you were so feverish I'm not sure that constituted as an actual conversation," Sollux snorts, feathers smoothing over as he forces himself to calm down.

"Aw, counting the times we've talked? I'm flattered," Karkat says jokingly, smirking when he can see Sollux blush and begin stuttering.

"W-what! No it-it's not like that!" He yells, growing flustered when Karkat laughs.

"Chill dude, I'm just teasing," Karkat smiles, his questions vanishing as he watches Sollux unconsciously hide behind his wings. He finds himself thinking about how cute the teen is as Sollux peers at him from underneath a feathery appendage.

_He's so fucking adorable_ Karkat flushes, trying to ignore those thoughts as he glances at his wrist, looking at the time.

"Oh shit, I should probably tell you that I'm grounded and if I'm caught I'll probably never be able to leave the house for awhile," Karkat states as he see's that it's nearing five.

"Wait, you snuck out?" Sollux asks, folding his wings against his back and tilting his head.

_Holy fuck he's so damn cute. _

"Uh yeah, I mean you wanted to meet up with me so how could I say no," Karkat jokes again, "Plus I was curious, even though I'm left with more questions than before."

"Sorry I can't tell you anything, but it really is better if you don't know," Sollux assures him, looking apologetic.

"I'll just do some research, but think we can meet up tomorrow?" Karkat asks nervously, "I've got to get home before my mom wakes up."

Sollux almost looks shocked but nods slowly, "I mean, as long as you won't get in trouble, I might be able to explain some more too..." He trails off before giving Karkat a hard stare, "Just promise that you won't come looking for me during the day."

Karkat nods, beginning to walk backwards, "I promise, I'll see you later tonight then!" He says quickly, turning around after giving a quick wave. He can hear a faint flutter before the sound vanishes, and he smiles knowing that he'll be able to see Sollux tomorrow.

* * *

He sneaks back inside as easily as he snuck out, searching for the signs of his mom being up, detecting none, before hurrying up to his room. Seconds after easing his door shut he hears his mom shuffle out of her room.

With a short curse he kicks off his shoes, stripping out of his clothes and practically diving under his covers, feigning sleep for a few minutes until he hears the shower start. Letting out the breath he'd been unconsciously holding, he slowly gets out of bed again, this time to put on clean clothes before burrowing back under the covers.

His thoughts immediately drift to the conversations that had occurred less than an hour previous. He blocks out the thoughts of how adorable the winged teen was, instead about that place.

_The horrors that happen there are worse than death._

If they're so horrible, then why does he stay?

_They could kill me for straying this far from the lab._

Why would they do that?

Karkat growls under his breath, frustrated once more at how little he knows. He desperately wants to scout the place again, but he promised Sollux that he wouldn't go back. And there's also the fact that if the place really is as dangerous as Sollux makes it out to be then he probably wouldn't last five minutes inside. Plus there's the fact that he's probably been discovered, he did leave the map and all...

Oh shit.

He sits upright, tossing off the covers and standing, eyes wide. He didn't tell Sollux that he'd lost the map and it's most likely still there, unless if someone found it which would also be bad. He bites the tip of his thumb, trying to remember what was on the paper. It was just blank notebook paper if her remembered right, but he can't be sure.

"Dammit!" He curses quietly, beginning to pace. That could be bad for him and Sollux, especially with how Sollux was describing the place. Why is he such a fucking moron?

He's torn from his thoughts as the phone begins ringing shrilly. He hears the shower shut off with a few curses from his mom as she grabs the phone in the hallway. He eavesdrops easily, already realizing that it's her work.

"Again for the case? I thought we were through with him..."

"Well I can but it'll take me a little bit..."

"No don't worry about that, I'll be there in half an hour."

"Yes, thanks for calling me, uh huh, bye."

A click and a sigh indicates the end of the call, and Karkat almost echoes the sigh as he hears the shower restart, ending quickly as his mom begins rushing around to get ready for whatever whacked case she's studying now.

He glances at the clock, the electric numbers blinking 6:34 a.m., one of the earliest calls not counting the times she's been called in near two and three a.m.

It's logical for him to be awake after the phone call, so Karkat ruffles his hands through his hair, giving the illusion of sleep as he rubs a hand over his face to wake himself up, pulling something of all nighters isn't unusual, but still wears him out.

His mom jumps slightly when he walks into the kitchen, sighing tiredly as he walks over to the fridge to survey his options for breakfast.

"I've been called in as you can tell, no idea when I'll be back home, I'll be calling home to check up on you too. Either make dinner or use some of the food money for this week. Don't leave the house and you can use the desktop but that's it," She lists in quick succession as she prepares coffee.

"Alright," Karkat sighs, taking out a carton of milk and grabbing a box of cereal. He ignores his mom as she flits around the kitchen, grabbing keys and her phone before giving him a quick side hug.

"See you whenever," She says as a bye, slamming the door closed behind her. Karkat realizes then that he'd left the bell silenced, not like his mom noticed anyway.

He smirks and shakes his head, still shocked that he'd gotten away with sneaking out. He'd only ever been caught once, sneaking in after the first time he'd ever snuck out, and he'd never been caught since.

Replacing the cereal items, he didn't really feel hungry, he makes a small mug of tea and carries it over to the rarely used desktop, powering it on and logging into the account.

Checking his email and perusing his usual websites, he decides to try and find more about the 'lab'. He does a few experimental searches, labs in the area, science institutes, only getting answers on colleges and a single scientific research institute miles away. Knowing those wouldn't work, he searches for more in depth things, human/animal experimentation, hybrids, labs performing these. And he's almost shocked at the result.

One of the main search results is a study on human/bird hybrids, posted by an anonymous source. Karkat reads the page avidly, slowly becoming horrified as he reads about the 'hypothetical' experiment.

_A volunteer child (no older than five) is either surgically implanted with wings, or as a young child or baby, given bird genes that will blend with their own DNA as they grow. The surgically implanted child is a failed experiment, the expanse of nerves and muscles that had to be connected to the wings proving to be too challenging for even advanced scientists. The wings eventually became too small as the child grew and had to be re-separated from their body._

Even though these are purely hypothetical, Karkat can't help but wonder if someone really performed these and wrote them down, only saying they are hypothetical to avoid suspicion. He knows it's entirely possible.

Karkat leans back in the chair, rubbing his hands over his face, time to put his meager knowledge of hacking to work.

He opens his go-to coding window, applying the proper address before scanning the words and numbers that come up, searching for the person who posted the story, anonymous never really meant anonymous on a computer.

"It's got to be here somewhere..." He mutters aloud, scrolling a few times before spotting an address code.

"L.A.B. Institution...what?" Karkat tilts his head in confusion, eyes narrowing as he closes out of the coding window and searching the place.

He receives only two results.

The first is a news article from about twenty years ago, talking about how a new institution, L.A.B. bought the property on the East side of town, including the small park near the edge of the property. It even says that it's unknown what the L.A.B. are planning to do with the property, as the information was never released.

The second is an article made five years later, about children that started going missing from the park.

_"According to police this is a major concern and the park has been blocked off after a fourth child being taken. All of the children were between one and two years of age and have seemingly disappeared into thin air. The parents of the children are very understandably distraught and all of them report saying that they were watching their children when someone walked past their line of vision and their child simply disappeared. If you have any information, call the police immediately, we may be dealing with a serious criminal here. The descriptions of the children are listed at the bottom of your scree-"_

The video stops there, and Karkat sits back in shock. He'd never heard of this before, five children just disappearing into thin air? And all of them being so young, how the hell is it even possible?

Now knowing this information he begins searching for information on the kidnappings, becoming even more shocked with how many articles there was on it. He learned the kids names, two boys and two girls, all the parents were single, and that there was one report of a child wandering out of the forest, one that none of the people in town recognized.

He focused on the kids names, something about that not sitting right: Alexander, Eric, Fantasia, and Addie (Short for Adeline). Such mundane names, why is that so weird? He can't quite put his finger on it, but there has to be a connection.

He takes out a piece of paper, beginning to write down what he's found out so far, it's the only way he can organize his thoughts at the moment.

First there's the hybrid experiments, then there's the L.A.B. Institute that bought the land and wrote article. Then five years after the buying of land there are four child disappearances.

He draws lines off to the side, putting vague details on the articles in sloppy writing.

Wait a second...

Child...

He reopens the hybrid 'hypothetical experiment', scanning it again then looking back at the kidnapping cases. They were all between one and two years of age. There's no way that'd be possible...there's no connection...is there?

It all matches up, but it seems so impossible. Karkat can't believe it, did he just solve a fifteen year old mystery?

"There's no proof that it's possible, I could be just a string of coincidences," He berates himself aloud, spinning around in the desk chair as he thinks.

"I'm too fucking tired for this!" he yells after a few moments of unsuccessfully willing his thoughts to coincide.

Silence greets him an he sighs clearing the history and shutting off the computer, folding the paper and trudging back up to his room. By assumption his mom wouldn't be home till later tonight, so catching up on sleep isn't a bad course of action.

Collapsing facefirst into his bad, he yells incoherently into his pillow before rolling onto his side, slipping almost instantly into sleep after closing his eyes.


	9. Weird Dreams and Weirder Friends

It's echoing here, but not because it's a large place, exactly the opposite actually, it's a small room. Karkat slides of the examination table, frowning as he doesn't recognize the room. It's all shadowy, like the suspenseful part of a movie. He walks on bare feet to the door, the cold doorknob making him shiver. His footsteps echo, which is strange enough, but when he opens the door, he's led into another room.

This one's brighter, but the same size as the room he just came from, it's identical in every way actually. There's even someone sitting on the examination table, a girl it seems.

"Hello?" He sounds like he's underwater, the sound not carrying. The girl, his age by assumption, swings her feet, watching them through the hair that shadows her face. The thin red dress she's wearing swishing at the movement.

"Can you hear me?" Karkat asks, becoming confused when the girl turns and nods, revealing bright auburn eyes. She smiles shallowly, and points at the door, the one that he just came from. Then she points at her door and nods again.

Taking this as an indication to continue walking, he hesitantly walks over to the door, looking back to see the girl is now a large wolf, barking viciously at him as he slams that door closed.

Another identical room, except...it's not. The entire room is bathed in blue light, reflecting off of the large aquarium tank where the examination table in the past two rooms were. At first it seems empty, before a movement catches his eye, and he turns to see a guy, a bit older than him, staring in curiosity from behind the glass. Light brown and blond hair drift around his face as he grins at Karkat, showing off a mouthful of shark teeth. Karkat walks up close to the tank, leaning down to face level with the sharklike boy.

Karkat notices the gills on the side of the boy's neck, and the fins that are on his arms and legs. He's almost shocked that he doesn't have a sharklike tail. He's wearing a pair of swim shorts a sort of tanktop that look dark purple in the teen opens his mouth, as if trying to say something but frowns when only bubbles emit. He shakes his head and swims to the edge of the tank, pointing at the door. '_Keep moving, before you're caught_', the guy mouths. Karkat nods slowly, slipping into the next room, another that's bathed in the eerie blue light.

Another tank sits where the examination table would be, this one containing a girl that eagerly taps on the glass, waving when he looks over at her. She spins around in her tank, grinning when Karkat walks over. This girl does have a tail, a dolphin one by appearance. Her long dark hair billows around her, looking like it's almost to her lower back. She goes to the top of the enclosed aquarium, taking a quick breath before diving down again, pointing at the next door.

"Hurry!" She says, bubbles streaming from her mouth and nose. Karkat doesn't understand what he's hurrying toward, but he goes through the next door nonetheless, and begins falling.

A scream is ripped from his throat as he stares upward, the tile ceiling fading into shadows as he hears a shout of alarm. The sound of another person falling next to him makes him turn, but he can't see anyone in the blinding darkness. He shuts his eyes tightly as he feels arms wrap around his shoulders, before he's slammed into the ground.

* * *

Karkat wakes up screaming, stopping when someone shakes him, the concerned yet annoyed face of Keramin swimming into view. She puts on her regular facade as he sits up, rubbing at his face.

"You didn't answer the phone, I called you three times," She says stiffly as Karkat looks at her for explanation.

"Sorry, I fell asleep," Karkat says tiredly, wanting her to leave so he can contemplate the dream in silent isolation. She seems annoyed at his dismissal, sighing and taking a step back.

"Well, I'm going to be at the station late and I need to get back there, I left to check on you. Don't sneak out or anything alright, see you tomorrow," She says softly, brushing his bangs off of his sweaty forehead and tucking a stray lock behind his ear.

Karkat just nods, turning away from her, he's too shaken up to say anything. He listens as she walks out, then hearing the car start. He runs his hands through his hair, making it spike up. He glances at the clock, seeing that it's past six, he's been sleeping for a bit more than eleven hours, but the dream had sucked any energy earned within that time.

They were clearly experiments, two girls and a boy, all it was missing was the other boy that he couldn't see. Why is he getting nightmares like this? And what the hell are they trying to tell him?

He stands unsteadily, stripping out of his sweaty shirt and walking to the bathroom, getting a quick shower before heading down to the kitchen to make dinner. He checks the house phone on the way down, seeing four missed calls, hadn't Keramin said she'd called three times?

The message system relays the first three, which were all from Keramin, leaving messages like "If you're not there you're so grounded for another month" and "I better not find you on your phone." He deletes those before the last unheard message plays. It's an unlisted number, and the message is only static, not even empty noise like if no one's talking, it's a high pitched static. He leaves it, in case his mom recognizes it.

Walking into the kitchen, he notices his phone sitting on the table, a note from his mom sitting on top of it.

_I disabled a bunch of your stuff and it's password protected not to work until I unlock it, but I'm giving it back to make sure you aren't sneaking out or anything. You're not getting anything else back though._

Karkat smiles, folding the note and unlocking his phone, seeing that she's only disabled the wifi and such, the password was easy to crack. He answers a few messages from Gamzee, saying that he was grounded and couldn't go anywhere (although both of them know it's easy to sneak out).

He sets his phone down as he makes some boxed macaroni, realizing he hasn't eaten in a few days. After moving to sit in the living room, turning on the tv to watch the news, he gets another text.

_From: Terezi  
To: Karkat_

_Hey Karkles sorry I didn't answer, anyway you should totally call me and tell me about your new school, like, right now._

He stares, bewildered, at his phone before picking it up, dialing the ever familiar number and setting his empty bowl of food to the side.

"Karkles!"

He can't help but grin at the ridiculous nickname.

"Hey Tez, hows it going?"

"Great! Sucky school without your gloom here, but otherwise fine!"

"Don't worry this school is as sucky as yours."

"That's arguable, anyway, you're like three states away! It's horrible!"

"Yeah yeah, pretty horrible, but we'll just have to visit each other during break."

"Totally! Anyway, tell me about how horrible your school is!"

Karkat feels the smile slip away, "No worse than yours, highschoolers are assholes, Gamzee's a few grades ahead of me so I only have one class with him. I don't really know anyone other than him and Tavros, I mean I met another few upperclassmen named Nepeta and Equius but that's about it." His thoughts flash to the girl who actually knew why he'd been kicked out.

"Also there's a girl that knows how I got kicked out."

He can hear Terezi make an annoyed noise, "That's probably my cousin Vriska, I told her that a few students got kicked out of school because of a prank, she'd been expelled for a few years now because of a stunt of her own."

"Nice, she seems like a bitch," Karkat says, hearing Terezi begin laughing over the line.

"She really is, don't mind her though, just don't get on her bad side."

"Not planning to," Karkat grumbles, leaning his head back.

"Have you _met _met anyone?" Terezi questions curiously.

Karkat pauses, debating whether meeting Sollux counts, "Well, kind of."

"Oh my God tell me everything!" Terezi squeals, sounding like she started jumping up and down on the bed she's obviously laying on.

"Tell me how you and Dave are doing first."

Terezi scoffs, "Of course, we're fine, he took me on a date yesterday, I don't want to bore you with my relationship, tell me about yours!"

"We're not even dating!" Karkat protests, "I met him in a park and he gave me his jacket because he saw I was cold, I've only seen him like two other times," And he has beautiful golden wings and may or may not be the subject of some twisted experiment.

"He gave you his jacket? That's obviously a sign he likes you, and what's his name?" Terezi sounds uncharacteristically excited, Karkat sighs.

"Sollux, I don't know a last name."

"Karkat how can you not know a last name! Now I can't internet stalk him," Terezi sounds disappointed, and Karkat can imagine the pout on her face.

"Such a tragedy," He replies sarcastically.

"Does he go to your school?"

"Nope."

"No idea where he lives? No pictures of him? Nothing?"

"Nope, I can describe him for you," Karkat jokes, hearing Terezi sound frustrated.

"Yes! Do that!" She exclaims.

"He's taller than me, sandy brown hair, freckles, one red eye and one blue eye, he's really skinny and tan like he's outside alot."

"Wait, one red and one blue eye?"

"Yeah, one's like the colour of my eyes, and then the other is like an electric ocean colour."

"Wow, that's so cool!"

"Yeah, I noticed it the last time we met up," Karkat sits upright, looking over at the clock, half an hour had gone by, he relaxes.

"Ooh when are you two meeting again?"

"Uh, tonight," Karkat tries not to sound sheepish as he stands, taking his dishes to the kitchen.

"No way! Are you two like meeting against the judgement of your parents?"

Karkat makes his way upstairs to his room, finding his shoes, "I dunno about him, but I'm grounded so for me yeah."

"Did you get caught sneaking out again?" Terezi accuses, knowing him all too well.

"Not caught necessarily, lets just say shit happened and when I got back home she was pissed and grounded me, she only gave me my phone back to make sure I wouldn't sneak out again."

"Wait wait wait, so you know nothing about this guy other than his name? How do you know he's not an axe murderer or something?"

Karkat shrugs, even though he knows she can't see it, "I seriously doubt that he's a murderer, trust me, if you talked to him a few times I bet you would think so too."

"Aww, too bad I can't, you moving away sucks."

"Hey not my fault I got caught," Karkat protests.

"Kinda is, anyway, 'Tula's yelling for me so I should probably go, keep me posted on Sollux!"

"I'll try, bye Tez"

"Bye Karkles!"


	10. There Were Five?

His mom calls before he leaves the house, he barely answers the phone before it stops ringing.

"Were you asleep again?" She asks immediately, talking over the sound of other people in the background.

"Uh, yeah, and I'm going back to sleep after we stop talking," Karkat replies, faking that he'd just been asleep. His mom sighs, like she'd just made a snap decision.

"Alright, I won't call after this, I probably won't be home till morning."

"Ok sounds good or whatever, night."

"See you in the morning."

Karkat hangs up the phone after he's sure she has and sighs in relief. That could've been bad, well maybe not, either way, he now has a few hours to spare, morning for his mom usually meant around nine or so, he'll be home by then.

He leaves the lights on and locks the door behind him, glad for the accompaniment of his phone as he walks to the small park. He goes to the edge of the forest again, more paranoid than usual that his mom might see him, which is ridiculous because the station is more than twenty minutes from their house. He still keeps out of sight.

A few people wander around, probably drunk or bored, it is a Saturday night after all, and Karkat just watches them, senses on high alert as he waits. A few hours pass, and he starts to become almost concerned to why Sollux isn't showing up. Another few hours pass and leans against a tree, watching a few bats flutter around the tops of trees before disappearing into the night.

As it nears six, he stands, staring into the forest for a few seconds before brushing leaves off of his jeans and walking out to the park. He begins running back home, trying to beat the sunlight streaming over rooftops as he slips inside, leaving the door unlocked like usual as he takes of his shoes so he doesn't track in any dirt.

Karkat stares at the ceiling after he lays down on his bed, wondering why Sollux hadn't shown, there had to be a reason obviously, but he wonders what it is.

His mom gets home around ten, but by that point, Karkat is asleep.

* * *

Monday brings another week of school, which Karkat slogs through without paying any attention to anything.

"Karbro what's got you so out of it?" Gamzee questions on Wednesday, after watching Karkat stare at a wall for almost the entire art period.

"What do you mean?" Karkat asks, breaking his stare to glance at Gamzee. The older teen frowns, glancing between the wall and Karkat to see if there was something specific he was staring at.

"I mean, you've been all up and staring at the wall for the entire class, somethin' botherin you?"

"No nothing," Karkat murmurs, turning back to the wall. Something was very much bothering him, he'd gone to the park almost every night, but Sollux has yet to show. He even risked venturing closer to the 'Lab' again, getting within view of the fences before making his way back home. Tonight he's going to leave a note, his mom is getting suspicious again about if he's sneaking out so he won't be able to risk it again for at least a week.

The bell ringing snaps him out of his thoughts, and he doesn't give Gamzee a glance before grabbing his bag and leaving as quickly as possible without shoving other people out of the way.

He was supposed to ride home with Gamzee today, but he doesn't want to be badgered by the other teens questions that are sure to assault him. Gamzee had become progressively more curious and worried as to why Karkat zones out so much, but Karkat doesn't know what to tell him, that he's waiting for a winged boy to escape from some place in the middle of the forest to explain why he's living in a building in the middle of the forest? That wouldn't work at all.

Plus he'd had another dream.

He almost wanted to erase it from his memory, they were getting progressively more disturbing, that one was the second time he'd woken up screaming. He debated talking to either Gamzee or Terezi about them, but always talked himself out of it. It would be even worse if they thought he needed therapy or some shit, worse than that, if they talked to his mom.

A growl thrums through his throat as he walks up the driveway, seeing that his mom was home, unusual for during the week. Another questioning session is probably in order then.

As Karkat opens the door though, he's only greeted by the smell of pizza, and an overwhelming sense of being alone. He grows wary, although he doesn't know why, as he tosses his backpack onto the couch. He listens closely, but only hears the occasional click of the oven as it remains warm. The lights are on, so she's home, but it's weird for her to just leave everything going.

He walks upstairs, letting out a breath when he sees her bedroom door open, his mom laying fully clothed on top of the covers. He retreats back downstairs, stopping the oven timer and pulling out the pizza that had clearly been bought from the store. Not that he minded, now he doesn't have to make his own food.

The footsteps of Keramin echo softly across the wooden floorboards, and he glances up to see her walk into the kitchen, tiredly rubbing a hand over her face.

"Hey Karkat," She greets through a yawn, grabbing the pizza cutter from the proper drawer before taking the oven mitt he offers to her.

"Tough case?" Karkat asks, testing to see if she's more tired or frustrated with it.

"Yeah, they let me have a few hours off, I'll have to leave again near midnight. It's about the Croskey guy who's been causing trouble. He got out again apparently," She replies, leaning against the counter and sighing.

Karkat relaxes, that means she's just tired about the case, meaning she probably won't bother questioning him about how 'everything's going' till tomorrow.

"Croskey? Thought you had that case closed over a year ago," Karkat replies, grabbing for a slice of pizza. Keramin snorts in response.

"That's what we thought too."

They both stand in silence for a few awkward moments, before Karkat speaks again.

"Did you ever hear about children being kidnapped about fifteen years ago?"

Keramin looks confused, thoughtfully turning to the ceiling, "Yeah actually, I heard about it a few months after you were born. Five kids wasn't it? It was pretty terrifying."

"I heard it was four," Karkat replies with a small shrug, Keramin turns to him with a frown.

"No no, it was five, two girls and three boys. I used to be friends with the moms of the boys."

Karkat frowns as well, thinking back to the article, he remembered it being two boys and two girls, but could he have been wrong?

"Do you remember their names?" Karkat asks next, thinking back to the names he'd seen.

Keramin looks suspicious now, "Why're you so curious?"

"Because there was a case of child kidnappings in the town that I grew up in that I never knew about?"

Keramin shakes her head, "Ok, yeah that's a good reason. There was Alexander, Eric, Michael. Those were the three boys, the two girls were Fantasia and Adeline. The girls were sweet, I used to see them when I went to the park with you for the few times we went."

Somethings not matching up...

"When I researched the child kidnappings it only said four children were taken, who was Michael?" Karkat asks, trying to figure out the connection.

"He was Alexanders older brother, he was almost ten when he disappeared. Alexander was taken a few days after Michael was, it nearly killed poor Penelope. She and her husband could barely stay in the town. Eric also had an older brother, but he was nearly fifteen I believe. It was awhile ago, all I can remember is that a few years after the kidnappings they called off the searches. That's when we moved, you were definitely too young to remember."

There was a ten year old? Maybe his theory about L.A.B. was wrong.

"Did you work on the case?" He asks, knowing that Keramin was a detective for a few years before he was born.

"No, since I'd just had you I was still off work. I was asked to come in, but all I did was offer a few thoughts. Like about the institute that had bought the land, but supposedly they couldn't interrogate them about it, it was a dead end."

"So there was no chance that they could've taken the kids? Weren't they a research institute? How did they know that they hadn't taken the children to experiment them or something."

Keramin laughs, "You've been reading too many science fiction novels, those sort of experiments are extremely illegal and very much impossible, and we investigated quite thoroughly, they checked out."

Karkat tries to not let his disappointment show, instead nodding thoughtfully.

"Sorry if that answer wasn't the one you wanted," Keramin says, smiling shallowly as Karkat shrugs, walking over to where he'd tossed down his backpack yo dig out the assignments he'd yet to work on.

"I was just curious, can't believe I'd never heard about it."

"Like I said, there was no way you'd remember it, you were pretty young and we'd moved after it had all blown over," Keramin shrugs again.

They both don't talk for a few moments, the only sound being Karkat digging through his backpack for the assignments he needs.

"I'm going to catch a few hours of sleep, remember that you're still grounded alright?" Keramin comments as she walks past him, back up to her room.

"Alright," Karkat replies absently, finally finding the elusive notebook that held his homework. As soon as his mom is out of sight, he leans against the couch, letting the late afternoon rays of sun illuminate his pale features. He swallows hard, feeling overwhelmed for a moment as he stares at the poorly painted ceiling. Too many thoughts are running through his head and he can't sort them out. The most prominent thought though, is telling him to think about his dreams.

The conversation with Keramin made him debate his thoughts on the LAB institute. If that building really is the LAB institute, he isn't even completely sure of that.

He knows what he wants to do, but he's not sure he should.

Sighing and leaning up, he taps his foot against the floor, thinking on his options. What he wants to do is go back to that building and investigate some more, maybe do a bit of exploring of the place. He's sure he'd be able to sneak past the guards on the outside, find a weak spot in the fence or something.

However Sollux's pleading always comes to mind when he's making these plans, the way he said they would kill him if they found him out there. But they couldn't kill a curious civilian right?

Karkat makes a decision.

If he sees Sollux tonight, he'll get answers out of him, but if not, he'll go back tomorrow, to hell with school, and explore the place. Guess if he was going to explore he should do a bit of research.

He begins to think of how he'll pull off the sneaking in and out of the compound, it's not like his house where he knows all of the spots not to step to make the floorboards creak. Tearing out a piece of notebook paper he writes down the plan, starting off with sneaking out tonight. He'll sneak out, and if Sollux isn't there then he'll scout the place, finding things like camera's and doorways. If Sollux is there then he'll get as much information out of him as he can, investigate tomorrow night, then scout the night after that.

He has a feeling that Sollux won't be there tonight.

* * *

_AN: I'll explain it at some point, but I'll give you some brief detail now. Basically, Karkat lived in the place he was currently living in till he was three, then his mom moved a few states away on an important case, and had planned to move back before Karkat went into highschool before Karkat got expelled. They'd moved a total of three times basically. Karkat has gone to a variety of different schools as well. Just a bit of backstory._

_I'll probably get the next chapter up later tonight, aka see you then. _


	11. Icarus is Flying

Karkat waits for an hour, his breath fogging in front of him as he crouches out of sight of the park. He continuously flexes his hands to keep them from getting too cold, even with gloves, as he watches the darkened forest around him. When his phone shows that it's nearly one thirty, he gives one last look around before standing and making his way deeper into the forest.

It takes him longer to find the path in the dark, even with the small flashlight that he holds in front of him. He doesn't want to lose the trail, so he follows it until it opens up to the roadlike trail, even then staying to the very edges of it. He worries about being seen, but then again he worries even more about getting lost.

Shockingly, he's encountered no one, not even the strange vehicles he saw on the first trek out here.

The cold air allows the sound to carry, so even though Karkat can't see the Lab, he can hear people talking faintly. He creeps through the underbrush, leaning down to a crouch once more as he see's the faint light of floodlights. The guards are the ones he'd heard, they were talking through walkie talkies apparently. He clicks out the flashlight, holding it between his teeth as he practically crawls around the side of the building.

Karkat types notes into his phone, the device on the lowest bright setting and notepad open so he can keep track of his thoughts. He slowly makes his way around the compound, becoming frustrated when he sees that there're no breaks in the fence, until he gets to the place he'd been when Sollux found him. He'd tracked the cameras, and this place was a blind spot as well.

The only bad thing was that a floodlight was trained on it. And a guard was only a few feet away.

It's a small space, he'll barely be able to fit through, but at least he's as small as he is or else he wouldn't be able to at all.

A shout draws Karkat's attention upward, and he sits frozen as guards run past him, guns drawn. They all run away from him, only two staying by the main doors. His heart pounds as he recognizes the opportunity, it may be the only one he ever gets.

He scrambles from the shadows, waiting till the camera is moving away before crawling under the fence easily, crouching in the shadows of the building as he opens the side outside door and slips inside.

* * *

He muffles his breathing, the room is pitch black. He clicks on the flashlight, sticking it between his teeth to draw out his phone. He texts Gamzee, making sure his phone is on silent as he sends it.

_To: Gamzee  
From: Karkat_

_I might not be at school tomorrow, cover for me?_

Karkat doesn't wait for an answer, tucking his phone back into his pocket and pointing the flashlight into the room. He can't see much, but what he can discern are metal tables and shelves filled with various medical supplies. He hears more voices outside, causing him to instinctively duck again The footsteps pound right outside the door, passing it by.

Karkat sits still and listens again, creeping toward the door. He sits by it for a few moments before reaching up for the doorhandle, slowly turning it to ease open the door just enough to see out into the hallway. There's no one coming down the hall, and he can see two cameras, one pointing away from him at the end of the hall, and another just in front of him, he'd be seen by it if he went out now.

There's another door that he sets his sights on, just across the hallway, with a small label that he can barely make out. It reads 'Captor'.

Returning the flashlight to his pocket, he braces himself to run, easing the door open further and making sure the cameras are facing away before making a break for it.

The door is locked, and Karkat frantically digs out his pocketknife and somehow manages to unlock it, closing the door quickly behind him.

"Way too close," he hisses, rubbing a hand over his face. He turns back to the room, clicking on his flashlight to find the light-switch.

The office is large, and he can already see another connecting door, but he doesn't go through it quite yet. The place is in disarray, like the person who occupied it never bothered to tidy and keep things in order, instead piling projects on top of each other. A desk is against the wall, but it's so surrounded by papers that it's hard to tell.

Karkat's glad that he wore gloves as he flips through a few papers, unable to read them very well due to the scribbled writing. He finds a typed up paper in the middle of the stack that he's looking through, looking almost like a report on progress. Before Karkat can begin reading it thoroughly, he hears the doorknob turning. Yanking the paper out of the stack, somehow not startling it in the process, Karkat looks around the room frantically, deciding to just hide under the desk.

He puts a hand over his mouth and nose, hoping that he's not making any noise as someone strides into the room, muttering something about the lights before stopping in front of the desk. Karkat stares at the guy's shoes, praying that he won't look under his desk.

"Hey Peixes, have you been in my office?"

Karkat nearly jumps at the voice, forcing himself to stay quiet as more footsteps approach and another voice responds.

"No I haven't, why do you ask?"

"The door was unlocked and the light was on, I think a report is missing too, that stack looks a little empty."

"Well you'll just have to check later, you know that right now we're on lockdown. They tell me that they've found more traces of someone walking by the building, they won't tell me anything else. Director wanted us to check on our experiments, the others are already down there."

"Alright, I hope this blows over soon, I have work to do."

With that the light flicks off, and Karkat waits for the door to click shut and the lock to be put into place before letting out his breath. He remains under the desk for a few more moments, listening closely before crawling out, folding whatever the report was and hiding it away in his pocket.

The room is definitely empty, now he needs to get out though. A look at his phone reveals that it's getting closer to dawn, nearly five am. Gamzee had answered him as well.

_To: Karkat  
From: Gamzee_

What are you all up and doin so late/early Karbro? I won't be able to cover you for long but I'll do my best, what are you doin that's so important?

Karkat doesn't have the time or patience to answer, so he clicks off his phone and lets out another breath, unlocking the door again and peeking out. The hallway is still empty, kind of surprising, but he notices that the camera's are powered down, the little recording light has blinked out.

Narrowing his eyes in suspicion, Karkat creeps down the hallway, reading the label's on the doors. Beside the one 'Captor' there's three others, 'Ampora', 'Peixes', and 'Megido'. All of the doors are locked, which is unsurprising. Karkat hurries to the next hallway, finding a door to a stairwell and debating whether or not to explore more before saying 'Fuck it' and opening the metal door.

He doesn't waste time making his way down to the first low door, he can tell that the building goes about two more floors underground. He can't check the hallway before, so he just risks it as he opens the door. There's still no one, but there's only three visible doors he can see.

The first door is unlabeled, but he can see there's at least one person in there, so he hurries past it, instead going to the only labeled one.

_'Holding Room Ground Level'._

Karkat frowns, seeing that there's no one inside, and the door is an easy lock. He's almost shocked with the shoddy quality of the locks with such high quality security, maybe they don't think anyone would try to sneak in or out. He easily picks the lock nonetheless, slipping inside the room with ease and turning around.

Only to bite back a scream as someone stares back at him.

* * *

_AN: Sorry for the shorter chapters, but the way I've been writing, this story might end earlier than I thought. Plus I'm typing up multiple chapters at a time so I think that they're longer than they actually are. Either way, it'll either end within the next few chapters or it could be a bit. Who knows._

_Aka, I should be able to get the next chapter up quite soon._


	12. Maybe He Was Right

The little girl stares wide eyed at him, and Karkat covers his mouth to prevent any noise from escaping. She couldn't have been any older than six, Karkat notes as he forces himself to calm down. The girl opens her mouth to speak, before shutting it suddenly, looking like she remembered something.

Looking around the room, Karkat can see multiple large sized cages lined around the room, some of them stacked on top of each other. Most of the doors are open, but of the few that are closed, Karkat can see younger children in each one of them. His chest begins to hurt, and he remembers to breathe, staring at the girl and the kids in cages in turn.

"You shouldn't be here," The girl says softly, finally deciding to speak. Karkat jumps at her voice, staring solely at her now.

"They'll be back soon, it's only a minor lockdown," The girl says again, frowning when Karkat doesn't respond.

"Are they keeping you here?" Karkat asks quietly, looking at the children staring at him curiously from their cages. There's only three others, but that's too many.

"We can't tell you that," One of the boys say from his cage.

"You should leave."

"They'll be coming back soon."

Karkat can't figure out how to react, "What do you mean? I don't understand."

"You need to leave!" The little girl insists, sliding off the table she was sitting on and grabbing for his hand. Karkat yanks his arm back, moving until his back is against the door. The girl's hand has sharp claws, looking more like a paw than a hand.

"I don't- I just-" Karkat stumbles over his words, thoughts racing as he reaches for the doorknob. He practically runs out of the room, running back the way he came. He gets into the stairwell, beginning to head back upstairs when he hears the door opening, voices following soon after. A half second hesitation makes him pause, before he begins heading further down the stairs, opening the first door he comes to and darting into the hallway. Another split second decision makes him go into the first door in the hallway, seeing that it's empty.

He keeps his back against the door, breathing hard as he slides down to the floor, he'd jumped down multiple flights of stairs, nearly twisting his ankle at least once. Running a hand through his hair to calm himself, he looks around this room, freezing when he see's that it's another sort of examination room, a girl his age sitting on the table.

Just like his dream.

She turns to him, an almost concerned look on her face as she realizes there's another person in the room.

A flick of her hand makes her long reddish-coppery hair stay behind her ear, and she slides off the table, the thin red dress she's wearing following her movements.

"You're not an experiment, or a doctor, what are you doing here?" She questions, her voice sounding almost judgmental.

Karkat once more can't find his words, only flashing back to the dream where the girl was replaced with the giant wolf. She seems to notice the thoughts in his mind, smiling slightly as she walks closer.

"You might not be able to return home, especially if they find you here," She lilts, crouching on the floor to look closely at his eyes. She smiles, the action seeming almost threatening as he blinks at her.

"Red eyes huh? Kinda like mine," She blinks and Karkat can see that her eyes are a darker hue of his own.

Footsteps outside the door makes her turn sharply, staring harshly at the door, then turning to him with the same look. He leans further away from her, pressing himself against the door as much as possible as she leans closer to his face.

"If you leave now there will be three minute openings between each passing of a personnel. That'll be you only window of time. Once you get to the door, you;ll have to run and hope you're not caught," She instructs.

"What?"

"You snuck in, if you go back the way you came, going straight up to the main level and hide in Doctor Captor's office before going to the room you came from you should be able to get out," She repeats, sounding slightly annoyed at having to say it again. "Once you're outside I don't know how you'll stay out of sight of the guards but if you stay away from the road you should be able to get away."

"How do you know where I've been? What the hell?" Karkat sputters, standing quickly.

"Don't question it, you have three minutes, start running," The girl barks, reaching past him to open the door, pushing him out. Karkat decides to just take her word for it, beginning to run, finding the halls are still empty. He counts his time mentally, finding himself at the top of the stairs at the 2:33 minute mark. He hurries to the office labeled Captor, unlocking it and ducking inside. After a few seconds he hears voices, and he prays that 'Doctor Captor' isn't one of them as they pass by.

The girls words ring true, once the voices face he ducks back out, locking the door back as he goes to the original room he came from, clicking on his flashlight as he digs out his phone.

_To: Gamzee  
From: Karkat_

_I've been at your house if my mom asks, I'll probably be at school soon_

Taking a deep breath, he opens the door, peering out and seeing the break in the fence, and there's still no guards. Gathering up the last amounts of courage he has left, he sprints the short distance to the fence, sliding under it and running into the forest.

He hears a few shouts, but can't hear anyone pursuing him as he puts more distance between the building and him. He makes sure to run in a straight as possible line away from the Lab, so that all he has to do is turn and start walking to follow the road. He slows to a jog, listening closely for a few minutes and hearing nothing but his footsteps crunching through the underbrush and his pounding heart.

Stopping completely, Karkat digs out his phone, seeing that Gamzee had replied.

_To: Karkat  
From: Gamzee_

_alright bro, i'll tell your latin teacher that you'll probably be late, i won't give an excuse or anythin_

_so you don't have to worry about that  
_  
Guess he'll have to explain a few things to Gamzee when he gets back.

Turning in a sharp corner, he begins walking straight again, 'following' the road's path but staying way out of sight of it. Now that he's safely away from the Lab, he has alot of thoughts whirring through his mind, one of the main ones being the children in the 'Holding Room' and the girl from his dream.

They had children there, children they were obviously doing experiments on, that little girl wasn't completely human, and the one that told how to escape had known exactly how he could've gotten out. It doesn't make any sense. And then there was the security, they must've found his footsteps or something on the road, his mistake that actually assisted more than hurt him.

All thanks to 'Peixes' who explained it to him. And partially Captor as well.

Captor.

His eyes widen as he pats his front pocket, scrambling to pull out the folded over piece of paper. He'd almost forgotten he'd grabbed it. The writing is scrawled in significantly neater type, probably because at the top it reads "Progress-Year Fifteen". Karkat looks around, confirming for the umpteenth time that he's still alone before sitting against a tree, settling down to start reading.

Progress: Year _Fifteen  
_Date_: 6/14/13  
_Subject Name: _Sollux  
_Age of Subject: _16  
_  
Progress of experiment: _The so far progress for Subject S has been almost phenomenal. He has yet to reject the avian genes even while maturing, as our previous Subject M did, instead the tests have shown that they are embedding themselves further into his genetic coding. The wings have grown to a strength that he has begun flying. The ability for him to fly has shown that his bones have become even lighter and his lung capacity has strengthened, the bird traits showing more prominently as he can now withstand long hours of flight, something that was thought unlikely earlier on in the experiment. He has been allowed practice the flying as far as Medium Park, which is the place we monitor steadily for any other possible subjects as you will remember.  
_  
Notes: _Being seen by anyone is an issue, he has become more curious about the town, especially as he is highly accustomed to the technology to far. He and Subjects F, A, and E have been seen communicating often, a possible issue.  
_  
Concerns: _His wings have yet to adopt the normal colors of the avian sample he was given, instead maintaining their tawny golden color. He has become easily startled, and now hides behind his wings when provoked instead of attacking like we've taught. This is a serious issue that must be addressed. The previous notes on him communicating with other subjects is also a concern. He's been asking about what his real name is, must consult older notes to figure out why he would be questioning it._

_Other details have been included in the attached sheets. Any further questions can be attached in a returned evaluation._

_Phyren Captor_

Karkat flips over the paper, finding that he must've torn it from the attached sheets, because there's nothing else. He glares at the paper, frustrated that this is the only information he'd been able to take, and it's over a year old. However this does confirm at least one thing, that they are performing experiments on people, and these experiments have been ongoing for quite a bit of time.

Karkat stands, continuing to walk as he muses in his thoughts. This report or whatever it was is about Sollux, and from assumption, it's the report of the fifteen year point in the experiment. So if he was sixteen when this was documented, then Sollux is probably seventeen now. He had to have been at the most one year old at the start of the experiment, and the labels of 'Subject S' and 'Subject M' obviously meant something. So did the other Subjects, and the letters, exempting Sollux, coincided with the names of the children that had been taken.

However, that doesn't make much sense, they obviously hadn't kept the names that the children had been given, changing them altogether would make more sense anyway if they wanted to avoid suspicion. So that means that the subjects mentioned may or may not be the children that had been kidnapped fifteen years ago. There's too many loose ends to make a case out of it.

The adrenaline has worn off now, and he yawns as he decides to find the trail, hoping not to get lost in the progress. Staying up so late for the past few days hasn't been the best idea per se. He almost debates just returning home, but decides that it would mean making up an excuse to his mom so that she'd call the school to say why he isn't there. He's not really in the mood for getting another harsh interrogation.

Technically school hasn't even started yet, a glance at his phone shows that it's just a bit past seven, meaning the doors are open but classes aren't in session yet. He can probably still get there by second period.

Or he could straight up skip.

He sighs and continues walking, albeit at a slower pace to gather his thoughts. Showing up late might gain more questions than anything, maybe he could still ask if he could stay home. It feels almost like all of his energy faded the moment dim sunlight hit his face.

_To: Gamzee  
From: Karkat  
_  
_Should i go to school today?_

Suprisingly, he get's am answer almost immediately.  
_  
To: Karkat  
From: Gamzee_

Nah, there's an assembly today, skip if you're planning to

A stroke of luck!

_To: Gamzee  
From: Karkat_

_Awesome, Imma sleep forever, I'll tell you about it tomorrow_

He begins composing a message to his mom, changing his route to head home. He knows that his mom wouldn't be home. Well, he hopes she wont be home, there's always the possibility that the case was finally closed.

_To: Keramin  
From: Karkat_

_You should call the school to let me stay home because I just woke up and I'm tired as shit. Gamzee's already at school so he can't drive me so don't ask about that._

He waits a few anxious moments while unlocking the door, kicking off his shoes again and collapsing onto the couch. He stares at his phone, waiting for it to light up with the indication of a message.

_To: Karkat  
From: Keramin_

_I don't care, see you in a few hours._

Success! That means he can go the hell to sleep. Tossing his phone onto the table, he runs upstairs to get a quick shower, he could smell antiseptic on his skin, before tackling his bed, pulling his pillow over his head to block the sunlight that's streaming through the window.

He only hopes he won't have any more twisted dreams.

* * *

_AN: This story will probably end within the next few chapters, just as like a small amount of warning. It'll be a less than twenty chapters (I'm pretty sure) so I think seventeen is the probable number. No promises though. _

_For some reason the most recent chapters have been difficult to write, and not quite up to par in my thoughts. I've been trying to make them longer as well, but that's easier said than done._

_Ah well,_

_Until the next upload_


	13. His name is Sollux

_Screams echo through the air, coming from the end of the hallway. The noise seems to assault him, sending sharp pangs of pain through his head every time the noise renews. He almost screams himself as he feels himself take a step forward. He doesn't want to move toward the screams. The hall is dim, he can barely make out the white tiles along the floor._

_Another step closer, the multiple doors lining the halls fading as he passes it. He knows which door will reveal the screams, knowledge he wishes he doesn't possess._

_The screams sound familiar somehow, he's about to put a label to them before they stop. If he was in control of his own body, he would've froze, he would've turned around and started running as far and fast as he could. But he wasn't in control._

_The door swings open at the slightest touch, and Karkat wants to jump back, but instead takes a step forward. He forces himself not to scream, one of the only things he can make himself do. Dark chestnut feathers are floating, blood splattered, to the ground, a shocked lifeless face staring up at him. The boy was younger than him, but something had happened. Blood drips from a limp arm, looking like the boy had clawed himself, and yet there's also blood dripping from his nose and ears. But why._

_Before he can even begin to comprehend what that was,he can feel himself being ripped away, but he doesn't mind._

_He's thrust just as quickly into another dream, and he recognizes the place as the examination room again. A repeat dream? But it isn't the same, something is off. The door is already slightly opened, a smear of blood one the door frame. Cautiously, he peers past the door, finding the room dripping with blood. It seems like a massacre had occurred. A deep breath is taken before he can start walking over the pools of blood._

_The floor drops out after applying his weight to the first checkerboard tile. He gasps, once more consciously trying not to scream as he begins falling. The same familiar sound reaches his ears as that other dream, and he looks up, seeing Sollux reaching for him, a shocked expression on the winged teens face as he tries to catch up to Karkat._

_Karkat feels equally shocked as he instinctively reaches as well, almost grasping Sollux's hand before pain flares through his entire body, and this time he can't hold back a scream as the dream fades to black._

He jolts to awakeness, gasping at the pain that splinters through his side. He'd fallen off the couch and had somehow landed on top of the bag that he'd yet to take to his room. A textbook's sharp corners dig into his ribs, and he rolls onto the ground, curling up in an attempt to appease the pain.

"Oh, you're awake," His mom states as she walks into the living room, sounding almost bored as she watches Karkat glare at his bag.

"Fucking bag why'd I leave it there," Karkat curses, stumbling to his feet and rubbing at the spot on his ribs. He looks up at Keramin, seeing her almost smirking at him, "Did you call the school?" He huffs, picking up his bag and glaring a bit more at the textbook.

"Yeah yeah, and Gamzee called, said he was coming over to give you the homework stuff," She says over her shoulder, walking into his kitchen and walking back out with his phone. She tosses it to him without a word, retreating back up stairs before he can say anything.

He grumbles under his breath some more, scrolling through the missed messages and calls without really reading them. It's nearly five, so Gamzee will probably be home sooner rather than later. Karkat goes to wait out front for him, noticing that the sky has gotten increasingly cloudy, it almost looks like it could storm.

A figure in the corner of his eye catches his attention, but it vanishes once he turns his head. A frown comes to his features, and he stands to walk over to the edge of the front yard. A paper seems to be stuck under one of the decorative path rocks. He picks it up, scanning it quickly, unable to fully comprehend the contents as he hears Gamzee drive up. He shoves the paper into his pocket, next to the report from Dr. Captor.

"Hey Karbro!" Gamzee greets cheerily, not noticing Karkat's confusion, "Got your homework stuff, not that there was much of it."

"Yeah thanks Gamz," Karkat mumbles, taking the few papers, thumbing through them but not really seeing them.

Gamzee catches on now, tilting his head in confusion, "Somethin' botherin' you bro?" He asks, Karkat immediately stiffening. He'd promised himself that he'd tell Gamzee what had been going on, why he'd been taking off so often.

How is he going to explain that the reason he'd been going to the park and getting Gamzee to cover for him so much because he's made friends with a guy with wings and might've uncovered illegal experiments.

"You don't have to tell me Karkat," Gamzee offers, smiling reassuringly when Karkat looks at him, "I mean, I am all up and curious, maybe a bit worried, about you, but if you don't want to tell me, you don't have to."

"But...that's not fair," Karkat says hesitantly, eyebrows creasing together, "You kinda deserve to know Gamz."

"Then tell me," Gamzee shrugs, "If he's that important to you then tell me."

Karkat's gaze snaps to Gamzee's face, heart beginning to pound as he registers what his friend just said, "How do you know it's a he?"

Gamzee looks like he wanted to roll his eyes, "C'mon Kar, you wouldn't be so secretive if it wasn't a guy."

A blush rises to Karkat's face and he fights it down the best he can before standing to glance out in the hall, closing the door so that his mom wouldn't attempt to listen in (which he doubted she would do but she's done it at least once.)

He sits cross legged, deciding he would start of by telling Gamzee about Sollux, wings and all, and if he reacted well enough to that he'd tell him about the lab. Hell he might even be able to help him out a bit.

"His name is Sollux."

* * *

_AN:_

_Don't hate me for the short chapter, I promise I'll get another update up soon_

_I started school July 31st so I haven't had much time to do anything, much less work on stories. I'll try my best to get updates out at least once a month (seriously guys, sorry but these last few updates have taken a lot of time and thought) at the most, at least every other week. However the story will come to an end soon, so maybe I'll try to get the final few chapters typed soon..._

_Either way, I apologize and I'll try my best to update sooner rather than later. _


End file.
